Uzumaki Naruto The Path of Darkness
by Ninja-Steve-Master-Of-Shadows
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto, after finding out the darkest secrets of his life, has decided that he'll do whatever it takes to become the demon he's been labelled since birth. DarkNaruto, pairings undecided...
1. The Beginning

Tiny feet pounded the city streets as a child with blond hair, and fear stricken blue eyes ran as far away from the place he had come as fast as he could.

His chest was tightening as he continued to run, his leg muscles were cramping and his breathing was hard. As he decided to take a chance and look over his shoulder, his eyes widened as he saw that his pursuers were closing in. And fast.

It seemed surreal at first, but then he noticed that it wasn't just his imagination. His heart beat slowed steady, his breathing became more relaxed, his leg muscles had softened and the stitch that had appeared in his side had vanished. It was as if he hadn't been running at all.

With an arrogant smirk replacing the scared expression on his lips, Naruto ran faster than he had previously been running, surprising the ninja following him and making them give up.

'Yes! Fate has finally looked my way for a change!' The boy cheered in his head, he rounded a corner into a dead end and quickly moved a garbage can and moved it so that a round shaped hole appeared beneath it.

Naruto double checked that no one was around before sliding himself in and moving the can back over the hole. It was as if no one had ever been there.

* * *

Four years later...

"Lord Hokage! You have to do something about the little monster! He constantly terrorizes the villagers and when we try to apprehend him he escapes! That's resisting arrest!" A Jonin yelled in frustration as he spoke to the strongest ninja, and leader, of the village hidden in the leaves.

"He's returning what has been done to him, no doubt." Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, said with a slight frown. "Let me ask you a question, Saori-san, who do you think is to blame for Naruto's behavior?"

Saori's eyes and mouth opened wide, as if surprised by the question. "The answer is simple, Hokage-sama, it's his own fault!"

"Wrong," Hiruzen said with a deeper frown, "He acts out because no one acknowledges him, because of the cold looks he receives, because he is always alone and everyone reminds him that he'll always be alone."

Saori's mouth was closed, as he was shaking slightly at the realization. Perhaps it wasn't the blonds fault after all, but that didn't mean he never liked to have a scapegoat.

"Some could say that it's Yondaime-sama's fault for imprisoning _it _within him, some could say it's the villagers fault for the way they look at him and treat him, and some could say it's the ninja's fault for the beatings he receives..." Hiruzen paused to sigh.

"Or some could say that it's my own fault for not protecting him as much as I could, or should have. So you see, Saori-san, the way Naruto reacts to certain things or acts isn't his own fault, but the results of our own actions. This is what we have forced him to become, even if it sometimes is merely pranks."

Saori never said anything, but he bowed and left the Hokage's office as it would seem he had a lot to talk about with his peers about the treatment of this blond haired youth.

"You can come out now, Naruto." Hiruzen said knowingly, a small smile tugging on his fragile face.

Naruto shimmered into existence from the shadows, a blank look on his face. It scared the old man to see the child like this.

"You said Yondaime sealed something within me… Is that Kyuubi?" Naruto asked.

Any hint of a smile vanished from the old man's face. "Yes, I'm sorry you had to find out this way."

Naruto just stared. "It's alright."

No, it wasn't alright; he had been lied to his whole life… He was hated because the Yondaime chose him, why did it have to be him?

Naruto briefly glanced at the picture of the blond Hokage, and it seemed as if pieces began to click into place.

"Hokage, I've just realized something… In all my time running from different ninja, and after seeing many different villagers, what other ninja have blond hair and blue eyes?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

Hiruzens heart stuttered and almost stopped; he inhaled a breath and said. "There are only a few Naruto..."

Naruto's eyes travelled to four pictures on the left side of the wall. The dark haired Shodaime, the white haired Nidaime, the brown haired Sandaime and... the sunshine blond haired Yondaime...

"Are him and I...?" Naruto paused, not needing to finish his question.

"Yes, Naruto... You two are bound by blond..."

Everything stilled as Naruto glared fiercely at the man he thought of as a grandfather. "You mean to say that Namikaze Minato, Yondaime Hokage, is my... Father?"

Hiruzen looked down. "Yes, Naruto-kun."

"Fine." Naruto said, and as quick as he came he shimmered into the darkness, the last thing the Sandaime Hokage saw was his cerulean eyes glaring deep into his soul until they too vanished into nothingness.

'What have I done…?' Hiruzen regretted, as his fists clenched. With a hand sign almost invisible to the naked eye, he called for two of his mask wearing guards.

"Badger, alert the council members and clan heads that a meeting will take place in three days." Hiruzen commanded, and with a nod the Anbu agent vanished in a swirl of leaves.

"Weasel, keep Naruto-kun under severe watch for the next seventy-two hours, Dog is expected to return in a few hours… I'll assign him to this mission as well."

Weasel nodded and vanished in a swirl of leaves. Hiruzen hoped against hope that Naruto would be sensible with the knowledge he now owned.

* * *

Naruto snarled viciously as he punched a tree over and over again, shattering the wood easily as his rage took control.

"Fuck the villagers!" He yelled, punching the tree, "Fuck the ninja!"

"Fuck the Sandaime, fuck the Kyuubi…" Naruto punched harder and more consistently. "And last but certainly not least, fuck you Yondaime! I hope your rotting away in Hell!"

Naruto's bloodied and damaged hands had started to heal and in mere seconds as the skin had repaired itself stronger than it was before.

"Hn." Naruto said, making an indignant noise. "The healing must be the Kyuubi's influence; it's saved me so many times…"

A distant look crossed Naruto's face as screams from a child started to echo through his ears along with the laughter of older men and women alike.

A growl escaped Naruto's lips as he clenched his fist tight and closed his eyes shut, trying to block out his horrific memories.

"I'll show them… I'll show every one of them that Uzumaki Naruto won't take it lying down anymore! I'll become stronger, stronger than any of the Hokage's! Naruto slashed his palm with a kunai knife and raised his now bleeding hand into the air.

"If I have to walk a dark path to achieve my power, if I have to murder to obtain strength then that's what I'll do. Never again will I bow down to these pathetic creatures that call themselves humans."

"Tomorrow I'll officially graduate the Genin exam… then I'll stop holding back, I'll achieve my goal… I'll become the demon that I've been scorned as my entire life…" Naruto stated firmly, he then made his way back to his hideout underneath the village.

A shadow stood silently in the trees listening to Naruto's blood oath; he soon vanished into the darkness to report this to his master…


	2. Meeting Sensei

"Okay, class, today is your last day as an Academy Student. For those that pass the exam, congratulations and for those that don't, better luck next year." Umino Iruka, the academy tutor said with a gentle smile, "Now first to take the test, Aburame Shino..."

Naruto sat in his seat quietly, on his left sat the last known Sharingan user of Konoha – Uchiha Sasuke. The dark haired, dark eyed boy was just as quiet as Naruto was, the boy never said more than four words at a time, which gave him the aura of 'mystery' which played on the girls heart strings.

That pissed Naruto off.

And on his right sat the leader of the 'Uchiha Fan Girls', Yamanaka Ino, the blond haired, green eyed heiress of the Mind Walker clan. Ino was a brash, tempermental girl that was loud and sometimes obnoxious, but Naruto liked her will to 'Never Give Up.'

'That could have been me in another life...' Naruto had thought to himself. Naruto looked at Iruka as he called his name, and Naruto made his way to the room where the exam was held.

"Okay, Naruto, make at least two clones, start when your ready." Iruka said gently, Naruto gave a frown, he was unimpressed with the simplicity of the test.

Naruto didn't need to utter a single word as two copies of himself fazed into view beside him. Naruto raised a single eyebrow and recieved a nod from Iruka before he handed him his headband.

Naruto left the room with a smug look on his face.  


* * *

"Shadow Clones, eh?" A silver haired man with a mask covering his mouth and a slanted headband that covered his left eye said, surprise and respect laced his voice.

A crystal ball was placed between four people, the silver haired man stood across from a dark haired, red eyed woman whilst a dark haired man smoking a cigarette stood across from the Hokage.

They were the Jonin instructors that would be monitoring the growth of the newly appointed Genin, and would soon be teaching them the techniques required of all Konoha ninja.

"Yeah, Naruto attempted to steal the Forbidden Scroll a year ago to master strong jutsu to use to take me out so that he could become Hokage," Hiruzen chuckled. "He still has a long way to go."

"You've been assigned to this boy, Kakashi, please show him that he can gain strength here in the village. The last thing we need is for Minato's son, and Konoha's Jinchuuriki to leave, Orochimaru would happily try to lure the boy into his clutches."

"No problem, Sandaime-sama." The silver haired man said with a nod. The Jonin and Hokage talked for a few hours whilst watching the new Genin.

They soon had to part ways to pick up their new Genin teams, Hiruzen had warned Kakashi not to be late as he usually was as it could damage the teams progress.  


* * *

"I'll announce your team placements and you'll then meet your Jonin sensei's." Iruka said, he smiled at the class and was proud of himself and the new Genins as everyone in the class had passed.

Naruto decided to make conversation with the Uchiha as Iruka read out the many faceless ninja in the class that Naruto barely new.

"So, the famous Uchiha Sasuke... I heard your the rookie of the year?" Naruto asked. Sasuke made a noise in the back of his throat but didn't bother replying.

"Hn, so unsocial." Naruto said, throwing his hands up. This caught the attention of the blond haired fan girl sitting on the opposite side of Naruto.

"Maybe it's because he doesn't want to be associated with the Dead Last, Naruto! How you passed, I'll never know..." She commented dryly.

Naruto gave her a happy smile and replied in a happy tone. "How does it feel to know that your going to die on your first mission outside the village? I'm quite ecstatic..."

Ino looked as if she had just been slapped by the blond, as her face portraid shock, her mouth was hanging open and her eyes were wide.

Naruto heard faint snickering coming from the Uchiha on his other side, he must have liked the joke... Even if Naruto was being moderately serious.

"Team seven; Uzumaki Naruto... Yamanaka Ino..." Naruto groaned and hit his head off of his desk, this could only end badly. "And Uchiha Sasuke." Iruka finished.  
Ino yelled in happiness, and Naruto's face showed slight interest at being paired up with one of the strongest Genins in the village. Maybe it wasn't so bad afterall?

"You'll be taught under Jonin Hatake Kakashi, please await in your seats until the rest of the teams have been called." Iruka said politely.

"Team eight; Inuzuka Kiba... Hyuga Hinata... and Aburame Shino, you'll be taught under Yuuhi Kurenai." Iruka stated.

"And finally, Team Ten; Akimichi Choji... Haruno Sakura... and Nara Shikamaru, you'll be taught under Sarutobi Asuma." Iruka finished, rolling the scroll he was reading up and placing it gently on his desk.

"So you've finally made it to the Genin rank, don't get yourself confident yet, your all just little fish in a big pond. Your teammates will become like a family to you, so treat them as you would your real family, you'll be relying on them to watch your back just as you'll watch theirs."

"Show the other nations why we, the ninja of Konoha, are the strongest and most feared ninja in the shinobi world." Iruka looked at his pupils proudly one last time, before the Jonin came in and began collecting their students.  


* * *

"Well guys, I guess we'll start with introductions. My name is Hatake Kakashi, I like many things... and my dislikes are... hmm... My dreams? Well I have many hobbies..." Kakashi said cryptically, making the three Genin sweat drop.

"Why don't you start, miss Yamanaka?" Kakashi said, pointing at the blond haired girl of Team Seven. She coughed and began her introduction.

"My name is Yamanaka Ino, I like flowers and gardening, my dislikes are Sakura and Naruto! I've not really thought about my dream... and I don't really have any hobbies..." Ino stated, but when mentioning her hobbies she gave a sly look at Sasuke, blushed and became uncharacteristically quiet.

'A fan girl, just great... Inoichi must be proud...' Kakashi thought sarcastically, "Okay doom and gloom, your up next."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I like few things and dislike many, my hobby is training and my dream is more of an ambition that I _will _make reality... I'm going to kill a certain man..." Sasuke said as a dark aura appeared around him as well as a shadow visual of a man with crimson eyes and three black coma-like marks in the eyes.

'Avenger... I seen that coming...' Kakashi thought, sadly. "Your up, sunshine."

Naruto growled slightly. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I don't really like much and my dislikes are too high to count. I don't have any hobbies, except maybe brooding? My dream, much like Sasuke's, is an ambition... To become what I've been named since birth..." Naruto's eyes darkened. "A de-"

"Okay that's quite enough of that." Kakashi interrupted, giving Naruto a stern look. Naruto just glared back.

"Your not atcually Genin just yet, meet me at training ground seventeen in twenty minutes. There we'll take a test to see if your ready to become Genin." Kakashi stated knowingly. "By the way, out of the twenty one graduates... only nine will become Genin."

The three stared at him in shock, each with their own individual thoughts on the matter before walking off to take thier final test to become Genin.

"Okay, so the test is to get these two bells from me before afternoon... which gives you roughly half an hour. If you don't get a bell within the hour, then the weakest team member gets tied to a tree stump and watches the others have lunch."

"But there's only two bells sensei..." Ino pointed out intelligently. Kakashi nodded, and began to explain that one person would be sent back to the academy.

"Wait a minute, but you said only nine graduates would become Genin... so what would be the point in sending one of us back. If it worked out that way, and say the others are doing the same test then only six graduates would become Genin..." Naruto deducted.

"So by saying that two of us have to get a bell that would pit us all against each other, but really, how many Genin do _you _know that could take out a Jonin level ninja? We have to act as a team to take the bells, which means the true test is... Teamwork!"

A light turned on in Sasuke and Ino's head as they quickly realized the same thing. Sasuke grunted annoyed that he hadn't figured it out sooner.

"Well done, Naruto! Yes, the real test is teamwork, sometimes you need to look underneath the underneath to find the true answer." Kakashi said, smiling. Although you couldn't see it because of his mask hiding his face, but you could tell by the 'U' shape his eye made. The other Jonin called this the 'eye smile.'

"So... does this mean we pass sensei?" Ino asked hopefully. Kakashi took up a thoughtful look before looking seriously at his team.

"No, it just means one of you is smart enough to figure out the meaning... You've still to prove that you _can _act as a team to achieve a similar goal. You now have twenty five minutes, the time... starts... now!" Kakashi stated, clicking the timer on an alarm clock.

"Remember," Kakashi quickly reminded them, "Come at me with the intent to kill, or you'll never succeed."

At once, the three rushed their opponent. Naruto dropped low to sweep Kakashi's feet from under him, whilst Sasuke jumped into the air to try and kick the older ninjas head.

Ino on the other hand jumped backwards and threw a kunai at the mans waist, giving him very little room to escape.

Kakashi's smirk was hidden underneath his mask as he quickly jumped over Sasuke, whilst grabbing the back of his shirt at threw the dark haired boy towards the trees.

Ino continued to throw shuriken and kunai at Kakashi after coming over the shock of Kakashi escaping the three of them.

Naruto tried to uppercut Kakashi, but he blocked it easily and lifted his leg high into the air, intent on bringing his foot against the blond ninjas head.

Naruto lifted both hands up and grabbed Kakashi's leg, but the sweat pouring down the younger ninjas head showed him how hard it was to keep hold.

"Ino, don't throw anymore weapons!" Naruto demanded, and just when it seemed that Naruto was going to loose his grip, he quickly yelled: "Sasuke! Do it now!"

To which the dark hair boy complied by jumping out of a tree, and when he was diagonal from the other two males of Team Seven, he made a few hand seals and brought a hand up to his mouth.

'Fire Style; Fireball jutsu!' Sasuke screamed in his head, before blowing out deeply and releasing a giant ball of fire at the two ninja.

'No way! It should be impossible for a Genin to use a fire jutsu...' Kakashi thought with wide eyes as the giant ball of flame edged closer and closer.

When the smoke of the fire vanished, Kakashi was seen standing there alone with slightly singed hair and clothes at the close call.

"You'll have to do better than that if you want to get a..." Kakashi began, but stopped mid sentence as he saw his Genin staring at him with smirks.

"That Naruto was a Shadow Clone, wasn't he..." Kakashi sighed, asking a rhetorical question. "Well guys, I guess you pass with flying colours. I officially welcome you to team seven."

"Yes!!" Ino yelled in joy, whilst Sasuke and Naruto stood at either side of her with happy smirks on their faces.

"Instead of doing the usual boring D ranked missions that normal Genins do, how about we start with some training? Ever climbed a tree without the use of your hands...?"


	3. Training

Naruto glared at a passerby, the cold look the villager gave him did nothing but grate the poor boys' nerves, he was so tired, so sick, so, so _angry _with the way he was treated.

He had been a member of Team Seven for four and a half months now, he had actually enjoyed spending time with his sensei and, believe it or not, Sasuke.

Naruto thought back to a chance meeting the three had that quickly turned into an all night training session two months previously. The three had talked about their past, and had realized that they were more alike than what they had shown others.

_"For me... I want revenge... my family was taking from me by an unknown Uchiha. I want to destroy that man. Itachi... he won't even look at me, we had an argument after that night..." Sasuke said in a monotone voice, keeping emotions out as he had been trained to do._

__

"What happened...?" Kakashi asked his voice laced with compassion. Sasuke's fingers clenched in the dirt and a look of rage overtook his features.

"He cursed my existence, he told me if I had never been born then the family would still be here, he told me that he wished I was dead... and sometimes, I wish I was." Sasuke stated. "As far as Itachi's concerned, he has no brother... and I feel the same, we're nothing but strangers from the same dead clan."

Naruto's eyes refocused as he kept walking to the original meeting spot, it was a bridge that crossed over a small lake.

Naruto couldn't relate to Sasuke with that particular story, after all he's had no one from the day of his birth, apart from... No, he wouldn't think about her, not now and not ever.

Naruto noticed Sasuke sitting on the floor with his back leaning against the bridge, his eyes were closed and his face held no emotion. It was hard for the blond to decipher what the dark haired boy was thinking sometimes.

Naruto sat next to Sasuke and he started day dreaming again, back to the story Kakashi told. This was one that made Naruto's blood boil.

_"My sensei... he was like a father to me, he told me that no matter what I would always be his number one student and the son he never had..." Kakashi said silently, his eyes looking distant._

__

"When the Kyuubi attacked, he told me to take care of his wife as she was giving birth and told me that if I helped the medic ninja by supplying my chakra to them then I'd help her make it through child birth... but I was jealous..."

"I was jealous that when my sensei's child came to be then I wouldn't be his top student anymore, he would train his son to be better than even himself. And then I realized that I wouldn't be the son he never had, I would just be a distant memory." Tears began to flow down Kakashi's visible eye. "When Kushina was giving birth to her child, she pleaded me, begged me even to supply my chakra to help her and her child live."

"I didn't know that my sensei wouldn't make it back from the Kyuubi battle alive, and so I thought that if I just let her and the child die... then it would just be me and him..."

"But the baby survived, whilst Kushina didn't... my sensei appeared and asked why I hadn't tried to help the medic ninja, and in my selfish mindset I told him it would be him and I until we died." Kakashi said nothing for a few moments. "He told me that he wouldn't survive the fight and that's when I knew I had made the biggest mistake of my life."

Kakashi looked at Naruto with sad eyes that were begging for forgiveness. "I let your mother die, while Yondaime gave his life to seal the beast into you, Naruto. I'm so sorry, I'm so very sorry..."

Sasuke only stared in shock and horror as he found out that his team mate contained the great demon. It took time, but he finally accepted the fact that Naruto had no choice in the matter... and as he remembered Naruto's ambition, he accepted Naruto, and the reason why Naruto was going to become a demon, a murderer...

Again, Naruto snapped out of his thoughts as both Kakashi and Ino made their appearance, Naruto hadn't forgave Kakashi and had told the man that he would kill him when the time was right.

Kakashi accepted this, and told him he wouldn't have it any other way. But every time the blond set his sights on the man since, he couldn't help the hatred that built in his chest, in his heart and buried itself deep within his soul.

"Well guys, I'm finding it quite difficult to find things to teach you now. You've mastered most chakra control exercises, and most standard jutsu. I think it's time to finally teach you some C classed Ninjutsu." Kakashi 'eye' smiled.

The four headed off towards their regular training ground and Kakashi tossed each of them a scroll. Naruto's scrolled had a wind jutsu, Sasuke had a fire jutsu and Ino had a lightning jutsu.

"Now, I'll show you the basic hand signs and instruct you on how to form your chakra, the chakra paper you used yesterday has given me ample information on which type of chakra you have, and for Genin to have any chakra nature at all is rare, especially for all three of you to have it." Kakashi explained, knowingly.

"First, we have Wind Style; Dual Twister, now this jutsu is based on the original D classed Wind Style; Twister jutsu, but there are a few hand signs you need to do to manipulate the winds into stronger, twin twisters that'll be sure to cut your opponent into pieces." Kakashi lectured. "First, use Horse then Dog and then Hare, that's when you channel chakra into your hands and throw them towards your opponent. Like so."

Kakashi made the appropriate hand signs and threw his hands towards a training post , and in that instance the wind instantly gathered into two medium seized spinning whirlwinds that flew forward and shaved the training post of most it's wood.

"You try, Naruto." Kakashi said, politely.

"Hn." Naruto grunted, making the hand signs and throwing his hands towards the training post. Two very small whirlwinds appeared but barely left any damage to the training post.

"You need to apply more chakra, Naruto, and concentrate harder. Never mind that for now though, I'll demonstrate Sasuke's jutsu." Kakashi said.

"I see you know a few fire jutsu, so it was hard on finding one you didn't know so let's hope I made the right choice." Kakashi said, rubbing his chin and sounding unsure.

"This is named Fire Style; Explosion and is one of the best fire jutsu a Genin could learn at this point in time, there's only one hand sign needed and that's the ram seal, you then channel your chakra into the seal and again with your chakra, you manipulate its course."

"Only manipulate it so that it's directed straight ahead for now, fire is unpredictable and could easily lose control and injure a team mate, we don't want that do we?" Kakashi said with a slight chuckle, before showing Sasuke what to do.

Sasuke had did as he was told, and the training post in front of him burst into medium sized flames, he smirked at Naruto because of how well he performed, which grated on Naruto's nerves.

"And finally, we have Lightning Style; Lightning Strike, you need to have both hands clapped together to generate the lightning then all you need to do is concentrate chakra into your fist and slash in an arc, this is a close range technique so be careful when you use it."

Kakashi clapped his hands together and rushed for the third training post and slashing down at it with his right hand, the training log split clean in half.

Ino tried it, and much to her joy she had obliterated the training log into thousands of small pieces of wood. She stuck her tongue out at both of the boys, who had dead panned expressions in their eyes.

"Well done, Ino. It seems you excel in nature manipulation better than your team mates, but keep practicing it can only make you better." Kakashi praised with an 'eye' smile. "Now keep practicing, you must master this jutsu within three days if you want to learn a new jutsu."  
With that in mind, they began to practice straight away, intent on mastering their new jutsu and learning more.

Kakashi had a hidden smile beneath his mask; he was starting to like these guys.

I'll be back in a little while, keep going at it and no slacking!" Kakashi said sternly before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

* * *

"Very good team, you'll be stronger than your peers in no time!" Yuuhi Kurenai praised as her team kept sparring in a three way brawl.

Kurenai turned round to come face to face with Kakashi; she was startled and jumped back a little as she wasn't expecting the man to appear so suddenly.

"Damn it, Kakashi! Don't sneak up on people like that; I'd have thought you'd learn that from our Academy days!" Kurenai hissed out, not amused with the silver haired ninjas antics.

Kakashi chuckled softly. "But it gives me some amusement! Who knows we need it in our line of work."

Kurenai glared at him before her look softened and she nodded gently. "So what brings you to Team Eight's training ground? Not trying to steal our tactics or report what you see to your Genin I hope?"

Kakashi held his hand up and eye smiled, a sweat drop formed on his forehead. "No no, nothing likes that. In fact, I was hoping you would teach my Genin some of your amazing Genjutsu."

"Oh? Let's see, you have Itachi's brother, Inoichi's pride and joy and..." Kurenai had paused mid sentence as her eyes widened.

"And Uzumaki Naruto, yes, there my Genin squad and they could really use a Genjutsu specialist to teach them a few things." Kakashi said, knowing exactly what his child hood crush thought.

"I won't do it." Kurenai said firmly, she closed her eyes and faced away from the man. Kakashi sighed, he thought this might happen.

"Get over it, Naruto is Naruto and Kyuubi is Kyuubi." Kakashi said angrily, startling Kurenai from her thoughts.

"Excuse me!?" Kurenai growled, her face taking up a look of rage. Kakashi glared back just as fiercely, he would fight for Naruto's cause.

"You know as well as I do that Naruto has gone through terrible things in his life but you've never been there even a quarter of the time that I have, that child has knocked on Death's door and come back stronger than ever more times than I can count." Kakashi stated, not backing down.

"That just proves it then doesn't it!?" Kurenai hissed, shaking with rage at the man she grew up with and had become close to.

"_I've _been to death's door and back many times, does that make me a demon? Well!? Does it!?" Kakashi began yelling, drawing the attention of Team Eight's Genin and scaring Kurenai horribly.

"What's going on, sensei?" Kiba asked, while his pet dog, Akamaru, growled fiercely at Kakashi. Kakashi made an indignant noise and stalked off to vent his rage.

"Nothing, get back to training... all of you, now!" Kurenai yelled as she jumped into the trees as tears streamed down her face.

Naruto stared at the scene with a blank face, not letting even a tiny sliver of emotion get through his barrier. He silently vanished back into the shadows in a swirl, leaving his eyes to vanish last.

* * *

Naruto made his way through the village, it was night time and only the Anbu and gate guards dared to stalk town at this time, other than misbehaving kids and drunken villagers.

Naruto silently picked the lock of a house in the more posh side of town, intent on committing a grave sin. As he quickly broke the lock and entered the house, he quietly checked every room on the bottom floor. He found nothing.

He made his way upstairs and checked all the rooms there. He had three targets, two female and a male. In seconds, he had a kunai in his hands and just as quick as it happened, he slit the mothers' throat and impaled the man's head with a kunai.

He went into the final room, but soon had to hide amongst the shadows as the last person in the house got up for the toilet. Naruto awaited behind the bedroom door with a held breath, waiting for his dark haired target to walk into the room.

"Mum... can I sleep with you tonight? Mum... Mum... hm? Oh... oh no, oh lord no... MUM! Mummy!" The child screamed as she found her dead parents.

Naruto cursed himself for not doing it quicker, but it was too late Anbu were in the house in seconds, Naruto took his chance and burst out of the window before dashing away in a blur. He got away safe, which was lucky.

"Did you hear? Kega Mitsukai found her parent's dead last night."

"Yeah?"

"My father said it was an assassin after their secret ninja techniques!"

"Shut up, there not even ninja!"

"Are too! Her father was originally from Ranpu, the village hidden in light!"

Naruto walked past the gossiping school kids with a smirk on his calm face; if you ever needed information then the Academy was the right place to go.

Kids liked to listen in on their parents' conversations, so if anything important happened in the village they would know about it and it would get around like wildfire.

Naruto stopped walking when he stood in front of a brown haired girl with spiky hair at the back and two bangs on her face, a red bandana covered her forehead.

She wore a casual tight, black shirt with mesh underneath – you could see it from her upper arms, she wore plain blue shorts and black sandals. What Naruto found amazing was her dark blue eyes, so filled with pain, loneliness and anger.

"What do _you _want?" She asked venomously. She had been in the same class as Naruto before he became Genin, she obviously failed the test set by her Jonin.

"To talk." Naruto said casually, taking a seat on the hard earth and waited for her to join him. She was shocked for a few moments before lowering herself beside him.

"Been listening to the gossip and come to find out the juicy details have you?" She asked, anger laced her voice.

"No." Naruto said simply. Silence took place between them, Naruto had his eyes closed with a small smile on his face whilst Mitsu stared at him in expectation before her anger took control.

"Look, if you're not going to say anything then get the Hell out of here!" She snapped, beginning to stand. Naruto placed a calming hand on hers and she sat back down, as if in a trance.

"I wanted to ask you a question. What do you think of the Anbu?" Naruto asked, half opening an eye to see her reaction.  
She growled. "Incompetent! Every damn person in this village is incompetent, they can't even find my mum and dad's killer! And they still expect to be called Konoha's best ninja!?"

"I see," Naruto said knowingly. "What if I told you that I knew who the murderer was?"

She had looked at him as if he had just said 'Hey, by the way, I have the Kyuubi sealed inside me and I'm going to use it to destroy everyone in this miserable village' with a smile on his face.

"WH-What?..." Her eyes darkened as she stared at the ground, so that Naruto couldn't see her face anymore, she clenched her fists so tight that blood began to dribble lightly down her fingers and started dripping onto the grass. "Who... who was it?"

When she looked back up, Naruto was gone and was walking away from the Academy. He had to meet his team after all.

"Hey! Don't you walk away from me! Tell me who it was!" She yelled at his retreating back, Naruto turned his head slowly to look at her with his left eye.

"If you want to know, then become stronger... this person could kill you with one swipe of their hand, so focus on nothing but training to kill this person. And when your strong enough, seek me out and then I'll take you to that person." Naruto said in a dark voice, before his body started to be consumed by a black hole, leaving his eyes for last as usual.

"I will..." She whispered to herself, "I swear it!"

* * *

Thanks for some of your reviews. :D

I'm considering a lot of your ideas, and I like them... I was thinking of Naruto/Ino pairing when I placed the two in Team Seven, but what would be the fun in that? :P

I know some of you wanted Sakura in team seven, I won't give anything away but let's just say that the Chuunin exam is going to be fairly interesting. ;)

I know I had Naruto figure out the bell test fairly easily, but the manga let's you see that his idiot act is just that... an act, he can come up with strategies almost instantly in battle I think it said... so I wanted to kind of portray that sort of intelligence.

And I hope I haven't made it seem that Team Seven are going to be super powered monsters by the time they reach the Sasuke Retrieval arc, it's just that if Sasuke can know a fire justu at Academy Student level, then the other two should have at least _some _sort of skill.


	4. Meeting Kyuubi

Naruto and Sasuke were walking through the village at a leisurely pace, today was their first day off in three weeks so the two decided to go hang out for a while.

Sasuke had his hands in his white shorts and his back straight with an almost bored look on his face, whilst Naruto stood tall and proud but with a bored look on his face.

Many girls gave Sasuke a lustful look with small hearts in their eyes as he walked past, then as quickly as the look came it changed to a glare as they saw him with Naruto.

As they were walking past a flower shop, Ino poked her head out to watch them curiously. "Sasuke, Naruto! Wait up!" She yelled, but was ignored.

"Should we run?" Sasuke asked, his eyes studying the blond who was currently taking off her apron and shouting to her parents.

"Nah, if she starts to annoy us... I'll kill her." Naruto said non chalantly, as he continued his casual stroll. Sasuke stopped and looked at his back with no emotion on his face, before shrugging and catching up.

Ino caught up a within seconds later and gave them a big grin. "What you up to, guys? I saw Kiba earlier, he was bragging about his team being so strong. You want to go beat them up a little?"

"You know, I think that's the best idea that's ever came out of your annoying mouth." Naruto commented casually.

Ino frowned and pointed at him. "Like you could do better, Dead Last!"

"Did you say something? I don't tend to listen to you much..." Naruto said coolly, as he began to walk a bit faster.

A tick mark appeared on Ino's forehead as she watched Sasuke snicker and Naruto keep walking. She didn't speak as they made their way to the training fields where Team Eight usually trained.

"Well, well, if it isn't Sasu-gay, Dead Last and Bimbo. What are you guys doing here?" Kiba jeered, grinning a little as Team Seven got closer.

"What's that smell?" Naruto commented dryly, holding his nose at the stench. Team Seven and Eight had confused looks on their faces as they tried to smell the air.

"What? I don't smell anything." Ino said in her confusion.

"I'm surprised, the smell of wet dog is everywhere... sorry, that's Kiba's body odour. "That's my mistake." Naruto said, with a cocky grin on his face.  
Sasuke and Ino burst out laughing, whilst Shino looked like a statue and Hinata tapped her fingers together.

Kiba snarled at Naruto and rushed him but Naruto easily side stepped the attack and after turning around so that he faced Kiba's back, he placed his left foot on the bottom of the other pre-teens back and pushed the boy to the ground.

"Weak." Naruto commented in a monotone voice. As he was about to make hand signs, the Jonin sensei of Team Eight grabbed them and distorted the chakra coils in Naruto's hands, making him unable to use jutsu for a few minutes.

"There'll be no fighting in my presence." Kurenai stated, glaring menacingly at Naruto.

Naruto noticed it, it was the same look the villagers and most ninja gave him and it pissed him off. Naruto ripped his hands from her grasp and turned his back to her.

"Bullying your team was just a bit of fun, your all weak anyway... probably wouldn't last one round against us." Naruto said, goading their sensei into a fight.

"You want to test that, Dead Last!?" Kiba snarled at the retreating blond. Naruto stopped and turned his head slightly, so that he could see all the members of Team Eight.

"I would, but your sensei is too much of a coward to fight. We'll leave with just a warning..." Naruto cleared his throat mockingly and narrowed his eyes to slits. "When the time comes, I'll destroy you."

Naruto released his killer intent, which froze Team Eight, but Kurenai brushed it off easily and just glared. Naruto and his team mates were gone in a matter of moments.

"Why didn't you let us fight them, Kurenai-sensei!?" Kiba yelled at her, "We could have taken them easily!"

"No you couldn't Kiba!" Kurenai snapped back, "They're way out of your league, just train and try to become stronger. I think it's time I taught you some Chuunin level Gen and Nin jutsu..."  


* * *

"That was pretty harsh, Naruto." Ino scolded, but she didn't yell like always. Naruto ignored her and kept walking.

"When the time comes, if you still annoy me then..." Naruto paused.

"Then what, tough guy?" Ino challenged.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Then I'll kill all of those you hold dear before finishing you of."  


* * *

Ino stared in shock-horror as the boy blended in with the crowd. Sasuke said nothing and walked in another direction, with Ino catching up a few moments later.

Naruto sat by a river in a secluded part of Konoha, there was a small waterfall falling into a small lake nearby.

'I think it's time to meet the fox. I need him to teach me otherwise my goal will be nothing but a dream.' Naruto thought to himself.

Naruto stood and placed his hands in the ram seal whilst closing his eyes. He focused his chakra on the seal and felt a slight tug in his mind.

When he re-opened his eyes, he stood in a dark, dank sewer. Naruto could feel a great but terrifying power pull on him and he began to walk where he could feel the evil 'essence.'

He walked into a large chamber with tall iron gates and a piece of paper with 'Seal' written on it, which was what, stopped the Kyuubi from escaping his body.

Torches were erected on his left and right that made a sort of walkway towards the cage. When Naruto approached, a giant red claw tried to snatch him unexpectedly.

"What the..." Naruto began, but the claw stopped mere inches from his face as the seal brightened and turned a sickening blood red colour.

A deep, hate filled laughter bounced off the walls as two giant crimson eyes peered at Naruto from the other side of the cage.

Naruto's eyes widened as the Kyuubi's body was then revealed, he could honestly say he was gob smacked, for lack of a better term.

"The twerp has finally come to visit me." Kyuubi stated with a fox like grin on his face. Naruto moved closer and closer as Kyuubi pulled his chakra claw back.

"I don't fear you." Naruto commented, defiantly. Kyuubi laughed again and shook his head; Naruto stood ten feet away from the cage and stared into the fox's eyes.

"You're brave, much like your Yondaime." Kyuubi said, his grin only widening at the look of hatred on his jailors face.

"That man..." Naruto clenched his fist tight, "Never mention him to me again!"

"I can see the hatred that breeds in your heart, and into your very soul." Kyuubi stated. Whether he was trying to scare Naruto or not was unclear to the boy, but he wouldn't back down.

"What would you know?" Naruto asked.

"I'm the smartest, and the strongest of the tailed demons... it's my place to know everything about you because one day, child, I'll escape your rotten, weak body." Kyuubi told him.

"If you're so smart, why am I on this side of those gates? At least I didn't let an idiot like Namikaze Minato sealed me inside a _baby_, of all things..." Naruto said with an arrogant smirk.

Kyuubi laughed. "You're different from the others, but different means nothing in my book. Now let's quit this mindless talking so I can refuse you and we can go our separate ways."

"So you can see what I'm thinking, huh? And what do you mean separate ways? You've got nowhere to go, you'll die with me." Naruto said smugly.

"You're annoying me, brat, just leave... I'll teach you nothing." Kyuubi growled, and turned his back on the child in front of him.

"I'll stay here forever if I have to, you _will _teach me." Naruto said, standing his ground with nothing but pure confidence keeping him in place.

"You couldn't handle what I have to teach." Kyuubi stated, dryly.

"Try me." Naruto countered.

Kyuubi sat in silence; he soon turned to face the boy once again. Seriousness plastered his face as he eyed the pre-teen.

"Very well, but first you must prove to me that you're ready. Let someone into your heart, and when they've let their guard down... kill them." Kyuubi ordered.

"But I want to start training _now._" Naruto stated, getting impatient with the demon fox.

"Your an annoying little insect, fine I'll show you something then you'll do as your ordered and obey without a second thought, understand!?" Kyuubi snarled.

"Deal." Naruto said smugly.

"I've established a mental link between us; when you next fight tell me to channel my chakra through your coils. Once my chakra has entered your body, you'll become faster and stronger and you'll have access to a higher amount of chakra." Kyuubi explained.

"Horse, Dragon, Snake, Dragon, Dog... and then coat your hands in my chakra and act as if you were throwing a rock, or a spear... this will cause fire to escape from the coils in your hand effectively shooting fireballs, so to speak."

"But this jutsu is different than any ordinary technique, you can't use it without my chakra and there's a twenty five percent chance that whatever is hit will spontaneously combust. I call this Fire Style; Multi Exploding Fireball." Kyuubi stated with a hunger filled look in his eyes, the look of a beast that's craving death and destruction. "Now get out of here, you miserable little rat."  


* * *

Naruto closed his eyes for a few seconds, and re-opened them. He was back in the real world with a smug look on his face.

"He's not so bad after all..." Naruto said out loud. Something alerted Naruto's senses and he threw a shuriken into a nearby bush, a pop was heard and Kakashi appeared beside Naruto.

"Your hearing is remarkable." Kakashi commented, "So did you have a nice talk with Kyuubi?"

Naruto's eyes widened, and he dropped his hand close to his weapon pouch, it was still in there air from when he threw the shuriken. "Are you going to report me...?"

"No," Kakashi said, "But I'd like it if you didn't try to kill me any more, I disarmed all those traps in and around my house. "

Naruto snorted and began his walk back to the village, Kakashi falling into step with him. "You know, Ino told me what happened with Team Eight and what you said to her afterwards."

"Hn, and?" Naruto grunted trying not to care but his eye was carefully trained on the silver haired man.

"And I'd like it if you didn't threaten your team mates like that. They're supposed to look out for you, and vice versa, but how can they do that if they think you're going to kill them."

"Them? Even Sasuke?" Naruto asked curiously, turning his full head towards him. Kakashi nodded but didn't reply.

"Sasuke doesn't need to worry, but Ino... she's so damn annoying!" Naruto said, grinding his teeth together.

"I know, but you're going to meet people in your ninja career that you may not like or even feel intolerable, but you just need to look the other way." Kakashi told him.

"Or I could kill them?" Naruto suggested with a cocky smile.

"And get arrested?" Kakashi countered.

"Okay, so I'll make it look like an accident, or I'll frame someone else." Naruto said nonchalantly, "If you don't quit bugging me, maybe I'll even frame you."

Kakashi's eyes widened and he looked dead serious at Naruto. Naruto burst out laughing, while holding his side and pointing at Kakashi.

"Your face... priceless!" Naruto grinned.

Kakashi sighed. "Idiot..."


	5. First Mission

"Guess what?" Kakashi asked his Genin as they met up for training. It was a sunny day, not a cloud in the sky.

"What?" Naruto asked, bluntly.

Kakashi sighed. "You're no fun... anyway; we've been accepted for a C class mission to the land of Waves. We've got to protect a bridge builder, yes I know it's not the top of the range mission, but it's better than D ranks."

"Ah, so you've collected your things like I've asked you, I see." Kakashi said, nodding in approval as he spotted their things lying under a nearby tree.

"That saves us some time, well, let's get going. We're meeting the client at the south gate." Kakashi explained, as the group got their things and began walking off.

An old man drinking Sasuke was waiting impatiently at the gate and as Team Seven got into hearing range he began to insult Naruto. "What, this is my Genin team!? Look at the blond haired kid, I bet he couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag..."

"What did you say!?" Naruto yelled angrily, but was held back by Kakashi who chuckled nervously. "Please don't insult our team, Tazuna-san, we're more than qualified for this mission... besides, I'm a Jonin."

"Well, whatever, let's make haste... I have to finish this bridge as soon as possible." Tazuna said, as they began their two day journey to the land of waves.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei... I've been wondering, is it possible to use more than one type of elemental jutsu at our stage?" Sasuke asked curiously, as he walked into step with Kakashi whilst Naruto was being mean to Ino, much to Tazuna's amusement.

"Right now, it is a possibility, but then again do you really want to get so powerful so fast?" Kakashi asked seriously.

Sasuke dead panned. "Yes."

Kakashi sweat dropped. "Okay, well say you were able to use another element... by the time you reach Chuunin rank you'll have nothing new to learn until you're ready to take the Special Jonin exams which occur once a year unlike the Chuunin exams that take place twice a year."

"I see... then, will you teach us a new jutsu? The fire jutsu I currently know are inadequate for what I need to do..." Sasuke asked offhandedly.

"Oh? And what do you need to do?" Kakashi asked curiously. Sasuke shook his head with a small smile, not willing to let Kakashi in on his plans.

Kakashi's peripheral vision caught a puddle at the side of the road as they walked by and he smirked. 'Let's see what my Genin are made off.'

When they were no more than six feet away from the puddle, two men shot up out of it and wrapped a chain laced with spikes along it and tore the Jonin to pieces.

"Ha-ha! That's One down, four more to go." One of the twins said viciously and began their charge. One went for Ino, who was protecting Tazuna whilst the other went for Naruto.

'Wind Style; Cutting Air Blades!' Naruto thought quickly, and the air around him began to pick up before throwing the man that was charging backwards and onto his back. He had been cut up pretty bad.

"Brother! You will pay!" The other brother said aggressively. He continued his charge toward Ino, who had charged the man back with a kunai, but the man side stepped past her and continued for Tazuna.

'What!' Ino thought, shocked at mans real target.

She was sooner relieved when Sasuke threw a kunai and it stuck into the man's skull as he tried to swipe Tazuna, but Kakashi appeared behind the old man and shifted him out of the way.

"I think you've got some explaining to do, Tazuna-san." Kakashi stated sternly. And so Tazuna began his story of how Wave was in poverty because of a man named Gato.

He wanted to kill Tazuna because if the bridge was finished and connected to the main land then Gato's hold over the village would loosen and he'd have to fight of Konoha, not even him and his mercenaries for hire could compete with a whole village full of ninja.

"Hm, so this is a B, possibly an A ranked mission. I think we better head back to the village so that Tazuna can be arrested for giving our Hokage false information and put the lives of three Genin in danger." Kakashi said seriously and began to walk back to where they had come from.

"Coward..." Naruto whispered.

Kakashi stopped in his tracks and turned his head to look at Naruto. "Hm? Did you say something, Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"You're a coward." Naruto said louder, and more defiant, "You would let this man's family; his _village _die because of one arrogant, greedy man? That, in my eyes, is cowardly."

"You actually care about someone else and his village, that's not like you Naruto." Kakashi said suspiciously.

"Okay, so I don't care about his life or the others in his village. But from the looks of these two ninja, they were Chuunin rank which means the next ninja will be at least Jonin rank. I want to fight him; I want to prove my power." Naruto stated with a crazed look on his deranged, smiling face.

"Is that so? What do the others think?" Kakashi stated, looking at his other two students. Sasuke was grinning like a mad man whilst Ino looked unsure.

"Ino?" Kakashi asked. He noticed her falter, but after seeing disapproving looks on her team mates faces she couldn't back out of it.  
"I'll do it, too!" She stated firmly.

"Great, I wasn't going to leave this mission. I just wanted to see if you're ready." Kakashi told them, nodding in approval.

"Let's get going then." Kakashi stated, after Tazuna thanked them.  


* * *

After crossing the river on a boat, thanks to Tazuna's friend, the group were walking into a misty area. Naruto's and Kakashi's guard was up greatly, and Naruto's smile turned into a deranged look of madness.

The air cut and Naruto shouted to duck, as everyone did and when they looked at where they heard a loud 'THUNK', they turned to see a masked man standing on a large sword.

"Momochi Zabuza, the demon of the hidden mist village, Kiri." Kakashi stated nonchalant. Recognition struck the man as he noticed the Jonin sensei of the brats.

"Sharingan no Kakashi, the copy ninja of Konoha. What a pleasure it is to _kill _you." Zabuza stated, he was obviously grinning under his mask.

"Not yet, Zabuza. It seems one of my students wants to fight a Jonin levelled ninja. Naruto, this fights all yours but when it starts getting out of hand, I'll interfere."

"Whatever, this guy is _mine_." Naruto growled animalist, all sanity gone from the boy's eyes. Red chakra began to swirl around the boy, his hair became jagged, his nails and teeth grew, black liner appeared around his eyes but what scared his team, Tazuna and even Zabuza the most was the blood red eyes, the true eyes of a demon.

Zabuza and his sword splashed into water, an obvious water clone, Naruto turned his head to the water on his left and faced the man.

"This is going to be a blast! Fire Style; Multi Exploding Fireball jutsu!" Naruto yelled and made hand signs, but he had said the jutsu in his head, he didn't want his opponent to know what he was doing.

Naruto jumped into the air with amazing speeds and started inhaling then blowing out medium sized fireballs, enough to roast a cow whole with just one fireball.

Eight of them shot at Zabubza, but he erected a water shield to stop the blasts. The last blast though blew him backwards as it exploded, effectively destroying his water shield and singing him.

"I didn't expect that, brat." Zabubza stated, before heaving his sword in front of him as Naruto appeared in front of him and tried to slash the man's faced, but only scratched his sword instead.

Zabuza pushed his sword, and Naruto had no choice but to jump backwards as both were in a stale mate position. Naruto made twelve more hand signs and banged his hands together.

"This is a technique I was sworn to never use unless in a dire emergency, but who am I to follow the rules?" Naruto stated, with a demonic grin. 'Ninja Art; Sword of the Underworld jutsu.'

Black chakra that felt like Death itself manifested around Naruto's right hand and a few seconds later a sword appeared. The hilt was black with two extended 'wings' appeared where the hilt was, the blade itself was a beautiful silver colour.

"This weapon is a sword that was said to be used by the Shinigami itself; I'll let you find out what the special effects of this sword are by yourself." Naruto explained, and charged the man.

Naruto jumped into the air at the last minute and began to spin, like a hurricane when he was above the man, and came crashing down on him. 'Wind Style; Wind's Fury jutsu!' Naruto had screamed in his head.

Zabuza jumped out of the way, but was surprised to see that Naruto followed only seconds after. With timing only a Jonin could have, he used the blunt end of his blade to hit Naruto in the ribs and sent the boy into the air.

After making a few seals, water began to rise around him and a dragon made entirely of water appeared and went straight for the boy. 'Water Style; Water Dragon jutsu!'

The dragon grabbed Naruto in its mouth and took him back to the shoreline where his team awaited, anxiously. Naruto was coughing like mad and made it to one knee, but the red chakra faded and he collapsed.

'I've got enough chakra for two more attacks, but then I'll have to leave... So I better make them count!' Zabuza thought to himself, as he charged for the blond haired child.

Kakashi knew Naruto was in danger and immediately issued his orders. "Sasuke! Keep Zabuza away from Naruto as long as possible while I get to him, then Ino... when the time's right... you know what to do!"

"Right!" Both ninja said in unison and Sasuke ran forward, making hand signs as he did so. 'Fire Style; Fire Phoenix jutsu!'

Sasuke skidded to a halt and began to blow several fireballs at Zabuza, and in different directions so that if he side stepped it then he would be faced with a new fireball instantly.

But Zabuza let the attack hit him, and before Sasuke knew what had happened; Zabuza flew past him, intent on killing Ino.

Sasuke turned his head, and everything turned slow, Zabuza raised his sword and began his diagonal slash on Ino, intent on ripping her into two half's.

Sasuke began to run towards them, his eyes still showing it in slow motion and just as he was about to throw kunai and shuriken at Zabuza, Ino stuck her Lightning Ball jutsu into his chest.

Zabuza screamed, how did this little Genin managed to hurt him – a Jonin? But she did, and he was too badly injured to do much else and so he made the hand sign for Haku to come take him.

The masked hunter ninja appeared as Zabuza collapsed to the ground, and soon vanished with him after exchanging a few words with Team Seven.

Kakashi had to pull the head band over his now exposed Sharingan and had eaten a soldier pill so that he wouldn't collapse of exhaustion.

"You're... eyes... Sasuke..." Ino trembled; even though the battle was over she had still been inches close to death if it hadn't been for impeccable timing.

"What?" Sasuke asked he could see everything with a slight red tinge to them. Had he finally done it? Had he finally unlocked his Sharingan!?

"The Sharingan, two comma marks as well... that's only caused by pure emotional stress, it seems Sasuke's got quite a crush on you, Ino." Kakashi said beside him, as he turned his now crimson and black eyes to the man that was currently holding Naruto.

Kakashi chuckled as both Sasuke and Ino blushed and looked away from each other.

"We need to get to Tazuna-san's house to rest and complete our mission." Kakashi stated, and they carried on their way back to Tazuna's. There guard never went down once.  


* * *

Naruto awoke to find out that Zabuza wasn't dead, but a hunter ninja – who they had figured to be his partner – had taken the body to a place to heal.

But what had him irked, and so anti-social at the moment was that he had failed. He couldn't kill one stupid Jonin, so how was he expected to complete his goal... he was so... _weak_!

"What's up?" Kakashi asked as he came outside and sat next to the blond haired boy. Naruto made an indignant noise, stood up and began to walk towards a nearby forest to train.

Kakashi sighed. 'Your only a Genin, you can't expect to beat a Jonin after only a few months of training, do you?'

"Kakashi-sensei, where's Naruto?" Sasuke asked, stepping out of the house. Kakashi sighed and pointed to the woods.

"It'd be best to leave him just now, Sasuke; he's quite upset at not being able to defeat Zabuza." Kakashi explained.

**BOOM!**

The chakra of the nine tailed demon fox was glowing brightly from the area that Naruto had just entered. Kakashi's eyes widened.

"Sasuke, that's Naruto, let's go!" He commanded, running as fast as they could to reach their blond haired team mate and friend.

Blood red chakra claws tore through the earth, trees and water from a nearby lake as Naruto continued his rampage. He wouldn't be weak, never!

'That's good, brat, let it all out... let your anger, and your hatred consume you and destroy everything!' Kyuubi chanted into his head, whispering dark thoughts.

'Now, I want you to practice your foolish water walk exercise using my chakra. Just like normal chakra mine also needs to be controlled.' Kyuubi told him.

'Once you're using my chakra to stand on water, use the chakra to form more claws and even tails and start spinning. This is the ultimate demonic chakra control exercise; with this you'll be able to use my chakra for longer periods, while conserving most of it.'

Naruto, in his enraged form, obeyed and began his training. It wasn't long before Kakashi and Sasuke appeared and tried to calm the boy down.

"its okay, Naruto! You don't need to be upset, you're taking on too much at one time, just relax and don't let the anger consume you!" Kakashi shouted over the loud wind, water and crashes.

Naruto gave a deep, low, demonic laugh. "Fools... you know nothing!"

The Kyuubi had some influence in the boy, as when he spoke Kyuubi's voice spoke at the same time. But they didn't let them stop their futile efforts.

"You don't need to use the fox's power to become stronger; you can do it on your own! Look at the Fourth Hokage!" Kakashi yelled. And everything stopped.

"You... you dare! Never mention that man's name to me again!" Naruto raged, and instead of spinning random chakra claws and tails, he directed them to Kakashi and Sasuke.

Both had dodged, but Sasuke knew this was his fight and as soon as Kakashi gave the order to flee, he ashamedly did so.

'Ha-ha-ha!' Kyuubi laughed, 'This is a better control exercise, now you have a moving target!'

Naruto sneered, and continued to chase and swipe his sensei with his chakra, knowing that he wouldn't be able to actually get him. But he sure as hell would try.

After fifteen minutes, Kyuubi's chakra vanished and Naruto collapsed due to not being able to use anymore of the demons chakra without killing himself.

Kakashi was exhausted, and had a few close calls to those damn claws of his but none the less, he picked Naruto up and took him to Tazuna's house to rest and begin the same exercise the next day.  


* * *

Zabuza was lying in a bed burnt badly and had a hole in his chest from the chakra of the blond haired boy and the lightning attack from the blond haired girl.

The hunter ninja, without his mask, stood next to Zabuza and offered healing tea to help the man's regeneration.

"You're ea good kid, Haku. When the time comes, you'll have to destroy the Uchiha and maybe even the blond haired demon... but be careful, there's more to him than meets the eye." Zabuza praised, and warned.

"I'll make sure I'm careful, Zabuza-sama. They'll pay dearly..." Haku swore, tending to the wounds again.

Suddenly, the door burst open and a fat man with a slight afro and black glasses walked in with two men wielding swords. They were obviously paid mercenaries.

"You couldn't even handle two kids, Zabuza! Why am I even paying you!? I should just kill you now!" The man, Gato, stated with a growl.

"If you so much as try to harm Zabuza-sama, I'll rip your throat out of your fat neck you piece of slime!" Haku warned, angrily.

"Try it, and I'll have you doing jobs even a slave wouldn't do." Gato warned back and made to move towards Haku.

But Haku was too fast, and in an instant he had broken Gato's arm and kicked him away from the two ninja. His mercenaries' at a loss to what to do.

"Fine... you have one last chance to destroy them." Gato told Zabuza, eyeing Haku warily, "And if you even think of doing something like that again, I'll pay hundreds of ninja to torture you in horrible ways."

Haku made to attack Gato again, and the fat man squealed whilst his guards stepped in front of him to protect him.

"Leave it, Haku." Zabuza commanded, "The job will be done next time, there'll be no problem. They were just better than we thought."

"Well you better!" Gato snapped, backing out of the room with his guards.

"I don't see why we have to go to him for money; surely we could enter a ninja village?" Haku asked with a sigh.

"We need him right now for money, without it we can't accomplish our goals... but soon, Haku, I promise you that we'll soon have a home again." Zabuza whispered.

"I hope so." Haku said sadly, "On a better note though, you'll be held within a week..."

"So soon? You truly are a genius at healing Haku." Zabuza commented.

Haku just smiled lightly and got back to tending Zabuza's wounds.

"Let's hope that that blond haired child doesn't pull that sword thing out again, I escaped it last time... but I fear I won't be so lucky next time, you be careful of it Haku..." Zabuza said quietly, before closing his eyes and falling asleep.

The fight would arrive shortly, but will Team Seven really survive the onslaught of the Demon of the Mist and his unknown apprentice?


	6. End Of The Line

"Today's the day, guys. I hope you're prepared for this, this won't be an easy battle." Kakashi told them as they geared up, and strapped on their belts, pouches and headbands.

"This... I've been waiting for this." Naruto said with a dangerous grin. Kakashi nodded, and with Naruto they left shadow clones to protect Tazuna's daughter and grandson in case Gato got dirty.

They left for the bridge, and when they had arrived the smell of blood, death and steel. Zabuza had already made short work of the builders.

Naruto began shaking as Zabuza and the masked hunter ninja, Haku, appeared from the mist that surrounded them.

"Look at Blondie, shaking in your boots already?" Zabuza mocked with a cruel gleam in his eye. Naruto snorted as he wore a malicious grin with matching cruel eyes as he stared the swordsman down.

"I'm shaking... because I can feel it..." Naruto said cryptically, but the maniacal grin never leaving his face, or his now crimson eyes as they penetrated deep within Zabuza's soul.

"Feel what?" Zabuza asked, tensing slightly, waiting for even the slightest movement before making his move.

"Your end!" Naruto growled, and charged for the man.

Sasuke snarled and used his vast amount of newly obtained speed to destroy five of Zabuza's water clones that slowly edged their way towards Team Seven.

Naruto jumped into the air in what seemed like slow motion, halting in the air for all but a second before he used his supreme speed to charge down at Zabuza.

Haku was quick, and interfered with the attack. A kunai knife was held in both of Naruto's hands whilst Haku had both his arms crossed in front of his chest with sendon needles in-between each of his fingers.

Two clones of Naruto pounced from behind Zabuza whilst another two sprung up from either side of him; both were disguised due to the mist.

Haku turned his head quickly to make sure Zabuza was alright, but that was all Naruto needed. Naruto head butted Haku, dropped his kunai and grabbed the boys head before spinning around with him and tossing him towards Sasuke, Kakashi, Ino and Tazuna.

"You're up, Sasuke." Kakashi said proudly, and watched as his second student began his fight with Zabuza's apprentice.

Kakashi himself began making hand seals and prepared for his surprise attack on Zabuza.

Naruto avoided a kick to the face as he watched his older opponent; Zabuza was ferocious in his attacks and not leaving any space for counter, or parry.

Naruto made a string of hand seals and threw another wind jutsu at Zabuza, scrapes and cuts appeared over his body but the man used his sword to shield the brunt of the attack.

A clone of Zabuza tried to slice Naruto from behind, but he easily spun on his heel and jammed a kunai into the back of the clones head, and it turned into a puddle.

"Heh. Your good, but you're not good enough. Haku's using his bloodline ability... let's see if you can escape that!" Zabuza said smugly.

He charged Naruto as two clones erupted from the mist, all swinging their swords at him. Naruto avoided two strikes, but couldn't avoid the shot from the blunt end of Zabuza's sword.

Once Naruto's chest had been hit, he was flung backwards and blasted through water in oblong shape; but the water reformed and hardened into ice.

"Haku, deal with both of them punks! Kakashi's planning something and I've got to interrupt it!"Zabuza stated as he rushed into the mist.

Haku threw hundreds of needles at the boys at lightning speed, there was nothing they could do to escape or even break the mirrors.

Naruto tried clone after clone, Sasuke used fire jutsu after fire jutsu but the ice mirrors just wouldn't break. But an idea started to form in Naruto's head.

"Sasuke, I have an idea. Distract him long enough for me to charge my chakras. I'm going to use _him._" Naruto stated, gaining a nod from Sasuke.

Haku vanished into an ice mirror, only to reappear to the opposite side of the mirror, throwing sendon at Naruto whose chakra surrounded his body.

But Sasuke's eyes could easily keep up with the speed, allowing him to stop most of the sendon. After five minutes, a few sendon had got through but it was complete.

Naruto harnessed a full tails worth of power from the Kyuubi.

"You've pissed me of, now you're going to die!" Naruto snarled as he charged each of the mirrors with extreme speed and smashing all of them.  
Naruto rushed Haku and punched him in the face; he flew through the air and landed a few metres away. He slowly got up, but Naruto was upon him again, kicking his ribs.

Then, while Haku was in the air, he slashed his claws across Haku's face, cutting it into three separate parts to fall the ground.

Blood gushed out of the pre-teens, now headless, neck. It began to pool around them, and Zabuza's screams echoed through the air.

"Haku! No!" Zabuza screamed, rushing for his apprentice's dead body. The mist began to clear and a horde of mercenaries and Gato stood at the end of the bridge, waiting with a smug smile.

"Ha! That little bastard got what he had coming! Now boys, why don't we finish the rest of these ninja off!?" He yelled as his men shouted in agreement and charged the ninja.

Naruto laughed ominously as he began to charge the coming mercenaries. One claw went into someone's face; another claw entered a chest and ripped out a heart.

Chakra claws twisted cruelly from its master's body, burning the flesh on those it touched and ripped organs out of its living target.

Within minute's blood, melted flesh, bone and sinew lay around them as Naruto killed the hired ninja, leaving not even one alive.

Gato got onto his knees and begged for mercy from Naruto as the boy laughed evilly and cut his throat with his claws.

Over two hundred armed soldiers dead within minutes.

"What will... what will you do with me?" Zabuza asked hysterically, with Haku's body in his hands. Naruto shook his head, the demons power had worn off and he was about to collapse from exhaustion and chakra burns.

"Bury Haku, and then continue life... but I respect your power and your strengths as a ninja and one of the Legendary Swordsmen of Mist and so I want you to keep in touch. Allies are always a good thing to have." Naruto said persuasively.

This was a manipulation game Naruto was using; he would need all the contacts and allies he could get. Especially from rogue ninja.

"I see, and then it's a deal. Don't get me wrong though, one day I'll kill you for what you've done to Haku and I want something out of this deal too. I'll be in touch." Zabuza said, disappearing into the mist.  
"Well, Naruto, you've officially scared, humiliated and creeped your team mates out. Well done, I even bet they'll thank you for leaving them out of this fight..." Kakashi said cheerfully and Naruto then realized that his team mates sure looked horrified, Ino, and angry, Sasuke.

"Hn." Naruto sounded, shrugging his shoulders.

* * *

the group had left the village for a few days now, the town loved them as heroes and Tazuna named the bridge; The Great Naruto Bridge.

Naruto wouldn't stop bragging this to the annoyance of his team mates. Kakashi had reprimanded him, but that only worsened the torture for Sasuke and Ino.

When the team reached the gates of Konoha, they had all went there separate ways and Naruto finally had a chance to start his quest for Kyuubi. To destroy someone close to his heart.

'Hm, now who could it be? Not Ino, I'd rather eat my own heart...' Naruto thought. He couldn't decide, so he chose to wander the village in search of a female.

'Not here, too bland... Not here, to annoying... Not here, too ugly! Damn! This is the largest ninja villager, yet there are no decent females anywhere!' Naruto growled inside his head as he dead panned as the 'ugly' girl with buck teeth and moles winked at him with a blush as he passed by.

'Help me...' He thought helplessly.

That's when they walked passed, Team Eight. He noticed Hinata look at him, blush, then start pushing her fingers together nervously with a shy smile and a blush on her face.

Naruto grinned evilly. 'Perfect.'

"Hey, um, Hinata-Chan... Could I speak with you alone for a minute?" Naruto asked innocently as he ran up to Team Eight and their sensei.

Hinata was shocked! Her face showed just how shocked, embarrassed and excited she was. "S-sure, Naruto-kun. Go ahead without me." Hinata said.

Her team mates and sensei gave Naruto suspicious looks but refrained from saying anything and kept walking.

"W-what is it, Naruto-kun?" Hinata stuttered shyly. Naruto took in a deep breath; he couldn't believe he was actually going through with this.

"Well, I've always noticed that your shy around me, and you used to follow me and watch me train back in the academy... So, I thought that maybe you liked me?" Naruto asked curiously.

Hinata's heart stopped for a few moments. 'Oh God, now is my chance, but... Oh no!' Hinata's incoherent thoughts were mixed up.

When Naruto noticed she was too busy stuttering herself silent, he continued on. "It's just that-", Naruto looked away shyly and his cheeks turned a light shade of pink, "I've liked you for a long time, I'm just back from a C ranked mission where we all nearly died and it's made me see that I need to make the most of life, I would hate to die with the regret of not telling you how I feel..."

Hinata couldn't believe it, after pinning for the blond haired youth for so many years and he had finally declared that he liked her!

She squealed and hugged him tightly. "I like you too, Naruto-kun!"

'Amazing, she didn't even stutter! This is too easy...' Naruto said with amusement as he hugged the lavender haired girl back.

"Do you want to get some ramen?" Naruto asked curiously, Hinata nodded firmly and they began walking side by side. Naruto took his moment to slide his hand into hers.

* * *

Team Ten stared at Naruto and Hinata as they walked passed hand in hand. Naruto had a big, fox like grin on his face while Hinata had a wide, yet shy, smile.

"Is that... Naruto and Hinata? Holding hands!?" Shikamaru asked shocked. Choji looked and dropped his bag of chips. What the hell!?

Sakura looked bored as she stared at the couple. Her look hardened though as she saw that Naruto had easily moved on from her and got him a proper relationship.

That pissed her off. Badly.

"Humph! Who cares? It's only the dead last and H-H-Hinata!" Sakura said angrily, crossing her arms in front of her chest and looking away.

"No need to go in a huff, Sakura. Besides, didn't you reject Naruto all those times in the academy? Getting jealous now eh?" Shikamaru taunted with a small smile.

"Shut up!" Sakura huffed some more.

* * *

it had been three weeks since Naruto and Hinata had officially started dating, they spent as much time after training as possible together and were slowly becoming more than just a shy couple.

It was because of Naruto that Hinata had finally come out of her shell and took training more seriously, she had become a little dark but that was too be expected from hanging around with Naruto for so long.

Her clan had seen that she was getting stronger, and surprisingly quickly that they had finally decided she was fit to be heiress after all. Hyuga Hiashi was please, so pleased he started training his daughter again.

He was surprised to see that she could land at least five hits on him in a training sessions, her prodigal sister could only land three. This pleased him more than anything.

Meanwhile, Naruto had upped his training with Sasuke and Ino and had now become adept at Wind type jutsu and was starting to learn advanced Ninja Art techniques.

Sasuke, however, had taken the chance to learn his second element type, Lightning, while he preferred it over Fire he still had a balanced arsenal of both types of techniques, whilst studying hard on his Taijutsu.

Ino improved her speed, stamina and Taijutsu whilst only keeping to Lightning jutsu but instead of having close contact attacks, she widened her variety to mid and long range attacks whilst training with her father, after Team Seven training, in the use of her family jutsu.

All in all, Team Seven was shaping up greatly, Kakashi made sure to even out their speed, stamina, chakra capacity and control whilst they were training in the other aspects. Soon it would be time for them to choose the path they would walk for the rest of their lives.

"Okay guys, I guess I should let you know early so that you can train extra hard for when it comes..." Kakashi stated cryptically.

"Until what comes, sensei?" Ino asked curiously. Naruto snorted as he took a seat beside Sasuke, "Before the Chuunin exams, dumbass. This is a large village; I'm surprised you don't listen to what goes on around you..."

"Shut up, idiot. I don't get out much because I'm always training!" Ino yelled back.

Naruto grunted. "Could have fooled me, your still so weak!"

"Only compared to you, idiot!"

"Weakling!"  
"Dead Last!"

"Banshee!"

Kakashi sweat dropped at the two arguing. "Okay guys, calm down! Here, sign the forms. I'll hand them into the Hokage's office soon."

Ten minutes later, a figure came walking confidently towards Team Seven. "Hey! Hinata-Chan!" Naruto called, "May I be excused, Kakashi-sensei?"

"I suppose so, meet here at five am tomorrow your all going to be training triple times as fast. I'm going to give you all better weights as well, the ones your wearing now must be too light."

"No problem, Kakashi-sensei! See ya later!" Naruto chirped happily, running up to Hinata. The other members of Team Seven stared at each other.

"Does anyone else notice that Naruto's not as evil as he usually is? Or that he smiles a lot more now?" Ino asked curiously. Both males nodded.

"Hinata must be having a good effect on him. I hope it keeps up." Kakashi said wisely, Sasuke and Ino nodded.

"I sort of miss the old Naruto though; he kind of kept us on our toes." Sasuke said calmly. Ino stared at him in horror whilst Kakashi chuckled.

"I have to agree with that, anyway I'm going, so take the day of and relax..." Kakashi said, walking off.

"So, Sasuke-kun... Wanna go do something together?" Ino asked innocently. Sasuke stood up and began walking away. "Not really..."

"Oh... okay." Ino looked sad. 'He's become so distant...'  


* * *

I have to apologise for the VERY late update, I just couldn't figure out how I wanted to end this chapter... and it's taken me this long to finally decide. I don't like the feel of this chapter, but I'll let you guys decide if it's any good!

The Chuunin exams are approaching fast! How will they turn out? How much stronger have the other teams gotten?

Naruto seems to have changed a little, will he still destroy Hinata and his own heart? Or will he embrace them and find his own power!? Keep reading to find out!


	7. Exams, Begin!

"You better be ready for this guys. If you fail any of these exams, then I'll personally cut you open myself. Understand?" Naruto said coldly as he glared at his team mates.

Sasuke stared back confidently and nodded. Ino hadn't said anything, but she was anxious... she was unsure with weather she could really do this thing.

Naruto moved his eye to the side so that he could watch Ino out of the very corner of his eye, he saw her posture and knew immediately what she was thinking.

He had come to a stop, Ino stopped once she had saw Naruto stop but Sasuke kept walking a few feet before turning round. "What's the matter, Naruto?" He asked.

"She's thinking about not doing this exam." Naruto stated knowingly, Ino's eyes widened, she had no idea how Naruto knew that and it unnerved her.

'Can he read my mind? I thought that's what _my _clan specialized in.' Ino snorted inwardly. She eyed Sasuke carefully, he clenched his fist and growled.

"You won't ruin this for us, not for me, not for Naruto and definitely not for Team Seven." He spat. Ino was shocked at the hate in his voice, but she looked to the ground and nodded.

"I understand." She stated, and the three continued moving again.

They had made it to the second floor, their destination was the third floor but it seemed that everyone was making a commotion outside a particular door where two Chuunin stood in position.

"Genjutsu." Naruto whispered to the two, "Just walk past them and head up the stairs. The more weaklings that aren't involved the better."

"You only want to fight the best of the best, don't you Naruto?" Sasuke asked knowingly, with a smug look on his face.

Naruto grinned back. "Damn right I do!"

So they did as was told, and ignored the teams gathered outside the wrong door. But as they had made it to the final set of stairs, a voice called behind them.

"You. You're the Uchiha Sasuke are you not?" A boy wearing green spandex and orange ankle warmers with a bowl shaped haircut asked.

"Hn, so what?" Sasuke asked indignant that such and off looking boy would dare approach him. The boy bowed quickly.

"My name is Rock Lee, and I am the best Genin in the year above yours. I wish to challenge you to a Taijutsu only match." Lee said, getting up from his bow.

He sweat dropped though as he noticed the team continue walking, whilst Sasuke shouted back. "Your not worth my time, loser."

Lee got angry, and in the blink of an eye he attack Sasuke from behind!

His foot stopped inches from Sasuke's face. Naruto was in between the two of them with anger on his face. His brow was creased to the lowest it could go.

"Get out of here now, freak, or I'll end you!" Naruto growled. Lee dropped his leg and staggered back in shock.

"So fast... I could barely keep up..., I didn't even have time to react!" Lee stated in shock and amazement.

He stopped and bowed low again. "I lied, I am not the best Genin in the year above you, I was the Dead Last of my year. My team mate Hyuga Neji is the all time rookie, and he will definitely challenge anyone with considerable strength, but it's also my goal to defeat him..."

"I don't care, if he gets in my way... I'll kill him!" Naruto growled again, his patience reaching dangerous levels.

"What! You would kill a fellow leaf shinobi?" Lee yelled. Naruto went to moved toward the bowl haired weirdo, but Kakashi appeared and put his hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"I'd _especially _kill a leaf shinobi." Naruto spat and turned his back on him.

Kakashi began to chuckle. "What's the matter, Naruto? Excited about the exam? Or is it because your missing, Hinata-chan?"

Naruto turned round quickly and growled while swiping his quickly formed claws at his sensei's face, but Kakashi was too fast for him.

Kakashi chuckled again. "Excited it is then, well guys if all three of you didn't show up then you wouldn't be admitted into these exams. But since your all here, go in there and make a name for Team Seven, understand!"

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei!" Sasuke and Ino yelled together.

"Hn." Naruto snorted with a smirk.

"Let the Chuunin exam... begin!" Naruto stated with a bloodthirsty look in his eye as the door opened and they walked in...

To be greeted by a whole room full of Genin, some looking particularly weak, some strong, some ugly, some pretty, some deformed... there were ninja with lots of different looks and feels to them.

Naruto's blood began to rush quickly around his body as his blood lust kicked in and took control. He eyed from left to right hungrily, daring anyone to make eye contact.

No one would. Only one person dared, and it made Naruto's blood boil.

"You!" Naruto shouted out, gaining the attention of the entire room. Everything went silent as Naruto and a red haired boy with dark marks under his eyes and a gourd on his back stared each other down.

He never said anything though.

"By the end of this exam... I'm going to kill you." Naruto said, a hungry, animalistic grin on his face. The hatred and lust flowed off him in waves, making the weak willed shinobi collapse, vomit or break out in cold sweat but for the stronger ninja, the hair on the back of their neck stood up greatly as shivers went down their spines.

But the boy had never even blinked! In face, he gave back just as much hatred and lust as Naruto was sending out... it made him excited.

"Yes, this will surely be a good battle and at the end of it... I'll treasure your head and take your name to the grave." Naruto said, making more than a few people disgusted.

"I'm sorry, but the one who'll be dead... is you. Mother wants your blood, but unlucky for your there won't even be a body to return... I'll crush it into dust." The boy replied back coldly, his monotone voice and stoic face unchanging.

Naruto grinned. "Uzumaki Naruto."

"Gaara of the Desert." The boy replied. And with a nod at each other, they turned away and settled down.

Once everything had settled down and everyone began speaking amongst themselves, Team Seven were greeted by the sight of a few team mates.

"Ino! Still butt ugly, I see." Sakura stated smugly as she walked over with her team mates behind her with smug looks on their faces.

Sakura had changed from the academy, she now had short hair and wore a red top that stopped before her belly button and white shorts.

Shikamaru and Choji still looked the same.

"Ha, at least I don't look manly like you. You should really do something with your clothes too, looks a bit trampy to me." Ino said, turning her nose up at Sakura.

A tic mark adorned her face as she shook her fist violently at Ino, who remained unmoving, whilst Shikamaru and Choji held her back.

"Troublesome, you shouldn't get her angry Ino. Sakura's a lot different and a lot stronger than when we were in the academy." Shikamaru stated.

"Don't care, I could beat without using any jutsu at all." Ino said smugly.

"I sincerely doubt that." Shikamaru whispered.

"Fighting already! You don't waste any time, do you?" Kiba said grinning as he approached with Hinata and Shino.

"Don't get involved, you couldn't take any of us blind folded, dog breathe." Naruto stated with a grin.

Kiba just laughed back. "Sensei has been teaching us a few things, like patience so that we don't fall for your tricks again. That's the only reason you beat us last time, insult us first then wait for us to mess up."

"You want to see if that's true?" Sasuke asked, glaring but Kiba never backed down.

"I'd be quiet if I were you, everyone's a little shaking up right now, you know?" A silver haired man with glasses and wearing a purple outfit spoke to them.

"Who the hell do you think you are? You stink of snakes and I hate snakes." Naruto said dangerously.

"You must be pretty excited, Naruto, your danger levels are this high already? I feel sorry for your first opponent." Sasuke said warily.

"Shut up, or you'll be my first opponent." Naruto growled back. Everyone stared with mild surprise at the way Naruto talked to Sasuke.

"Whatever." Sasuke mumbled, crossed his arms and then faced away from the blond.

The silver haired man chuckled. "Anyway, my name's Yakushi Kabuto and I'm here to supply info on ninja since your fellow leaf Genin."

"No way, your a Genin... how old are you?" Naruto burst out laughing while pointing at the unamused older ninja.

"I might be older and still be a Genin but I could beat you anytime, Naruto-kun." Kabuto said, pushing his glasses up his nose slightly.

"I sincerely doubt that and anyway, how do you know my name?" Naruto asked suspiciously, eying Kabuto up with squint eyes.

"Simple, these ninja info cards." Kabuto said, pulling out blank cards. Everyone stared confused at them for a moment but Kabuto charged chakra into them and Naruto's Genin picture appeared.

"Uzumaki Naruto, age twelve, Team Seven, team memebers are Uchiha Sasuke and Yamanaka Ino whilst the sensei being the legendary copy cat ninja Hatake Kakashi." Kabuto read out with a smirk.

"Are you even supposed to have them kinds of files on us?" Shikamaru asked, he took the card and examined it and whistled at the information.

"Done quite a few high level missions, haven't you Naruto?" Shikamaru appraised.

"Hey! He wasn't the only one to do the missions!" Ino piped in angrily, slapping Shikamaru upside the head.

"Troublesome.." Shikamaru grumbled, handing the card back.

"So, anyone you guys want to know about?" Kabuto asked, shuffling the cards as he waited for an answer.

"Hyuga Neji." Ino started off, curious about the ninja that the bug eyed boy talked about. Kabuto began looking through his cards and pulled out one at random.

"Hyuga Neji, team mates are Tenten and Rock Lee and his sensei is Maito Gai, the green beast of Konoha, a Taijutsu master. 20 D ranks completed and 3 C ranks an average team but Neji is apparently the prodigy of his clan even though he's only in the Branch house. He uses the famous Byakugan bloodline limit."

"That really is some extensive knowledge." Shikamaru stated suspiciously. Kabuto just chuckled and made a map of the nearby villages appear.

"These are all the villages attending this years Chuunin exam, there seems to be a new village, the village hidden in sound, that was formed a few years ago and aren't that powerful so you shouldn't have any problems with those guys." Kabuto jeered.

Unfortunately for him, the sound Genin seemed to hear what he said and one of the Genin, a man hunched over and wrapped completely in bandages, charged at him and threw a punch that stopped inches from Kabuto's face.

"You call that a punch! You missed!" Kiba jeered, causing everyone to laugh. But the laughter soon stopped when Kabuto's glasses broke and he collapsed to the ground and began to spew.

"Silence!" A male voice screamed.

A man wearing a trenchcoat, a bandana and with several scars on his face yelled as he appeared with other men in white clothing.

"There'll be no fighting in this exam until later, so save your energy until then or I'll disqualify you here and now, understood!" He yelled sternly.

The sound ninja nodded smugly, "Sorry, I got too excited."

Everyone settled down, and The examiner began to speak.

"Right, now my name is Morino Ibiki the head of the torture and interogation devision and I'll be your examiner for the first exam. Take a piece of paper from these boxes, it'll have your seat number on it." Ibiki stated.

After everyone had been seated, Ibiki explained the rules of this test... the written exam.

"You each start with ten points, every time you're caught cheating you will be deducted of two points, if you lose all of your points then it's game over. If your team mate is thrown out, you go with him. Not hard to understand, I hope?" Ibiki stated clearly.

"After you have answered the nine questions, you will wait until the forty-five minute time limit is up and then you'll be asked a tenth question which you can choose not to take. If you choose not to take it you're disqualified, as are you're team mates."

"If you decide to take it and get it wrong, you'll never be allowed to take this exam again... ever."

"What! That's bullshit, there are others here that have taken this test before and come back!" Kiba yelled, standing.

"That's because they were lucky enough not to get **me **as their examiner. Your time starts now, go!" Ibiki yelled.

Naruto had been lucky enough to have been seated next to Hinata for the exam and was given the answers via cheating.

He had plenty of time to sit and think about the tenth question, and that got him thinking to the questions on the paper in front of him.

'Wait a minute, surely if we were caught cheating they would just throw us out... instead we lose points. Does that mean we have to cheat to win?' Naruto thought to himself. He inconspicuously looked around the room and noticed a few others cheating indescreatly and it clicked into place.

The only thing he had to worry about was the tenth question...

'I wonder if the tenth question is a trick too? It must be, the rules for this test are bizarre!' Naruto thought, he soon noticed Ibiki was staring right at him, and with a knowing grin he winked at the intimidating man, showing him he had figured out the test.

Ibiki smirked lightly and shook his head. 'This boy is something else...'

"Alright, the time limit is up and it's decision time... stay or leave, risk being disqualified and never taken the exam again or leave and try again in six months time. The choice is yours."

Many teams left at this point, worried that they would fail the tenth question whilst others left because their team mates couldn't handle the pressure.

After fifteen minutes, the teams that were adamantly staying sat staring at Ibiki intently.

"Well, it looks like no one else is leaving so I guess you all... pass!" Ibiki said with a smile.

"What! What about the tenth question?" Temari, a sand ninja, spoke in confusion.

"The tenth question was to stay or go, you see, in the ninja world you'll sometimes be given a mission that you know you and your team mates may never come back from. But does that mean you shouldn't do it?"

"No, every mission you have as a Chuunin onward has a chance that you will die in battle or be captured and tortured by enemies for information." Ibiki stopped to take his headband off, the sight made many of the ninja sick to their stomachs.

It looked as if someone had burnt Ibiki's head and drilled his skull with cork screws. "When ninja want information they will do whatever it takes to get it, even if you know this you have to make the harder decision to go ahead with the mission for the sake of the village. Never back down, and never give up..."

Before Ibiki could get to the important part of his speech, the window shattered and one Mitarashi Anko appeared with a dangerous grin on her beautiful face.

Anko had purple hair, spiked at the back and wore barely anything under her mesh shirt, short-shorts and tan coloured trench coat.

"I'm Mitarashi Anko, and I'll be your examiner for the next exam!" She said happily, with a big grin.

"Anko, you're way too early! I haven't even finished..." Ibiki began, but was interupted.

"Sorry, Ibiki but we've got to move things along." Anko stated, waving her hand nonchalantly. "Wow, twenty six teams left... you're getting sloppy Ibiki."

"Maybe we have a good batch of Genin this year." Ibiki mumbled with amusement.

"Well let's see if we can cut those numbers down by half in the next exam, follow me... to the Forest of Death!" Anko exclaimed with a bloodthirsty grin.

_

Each team stood in front of a large forest that was enclosed by a large metal fence with doors on all sides of it.

"This place is creepy..." Ino stated with shivers running down her spine at the sight of the ominous forest.

"You'll soon see why it's called... the Forest of Death!" Anko replied, darkly.

"Stay close to me when we go in, I've been in there before and know the place like the back of my hand." Naruto stated with a blank face.

"You've been in there before, Naruto?" Sasuke asked, curiously. Naruto nodded to him softly, a glazed look in his eyes.

"Yeah, not by choice mind you... If it wasn't for that fox, I think I'd have died." Naruto said in monotone, staring intently into the darkness of the trees.

Ino snickered, "Naruto, you got saved by a little animal? I never put you down as someone who would let anyone, let alone animals, help him."

Sasuke stared in horror, he quickly put his hand over Ino's mouth, "Don't talk about it anymore, I can't stop him killing you."

Ino stared in confusion, but Naruto never seemed to move... other than clenching his fist tight against his sides.

"You think I'm scared!" Naruto yelled, pointing at Anko. "That forest is child's play!"

"Yeah, you're spirited." Anko said with her eyes closed and a small smile, and quick as lightning she pulled a kunai from her sleeve and threw it at the blond, who tilted his head to the side without a care, and a dark grin.

"You're more talented than you look, you even dodged my knife with little effort." Anko said, half shock and half proud.

"But that won't save you, little kids like you are killed quickly." Anko stated with a chuckle. But she didn't let that go yet, and with speed kown only to Jonin, she appeared behind Naruto.

A cut quickly formed on his face and began to bleed, she licked it as if it was her favourite dessert. "Mmm, red blood..."

A man with a long tounge appeared behind Anko with her kunai wrapped around it.

"Sneaking up behind people will get you killed," She stated darkly to the grass ninja.  
"Sorry, I get excited when I see blood... besides you cut my precious hair."

Naruto made a sickened noise. "Ugh, you both smell like snakes... get away from me! I _**hate **_snakes!"

Naruto pushed Anko's knife away from him and walked a few steps forward. "Never touch me again, or you'll find that you will be the one dead!"

Naruto glared indignantly at the two of them.

"Naruto..." Hinata whispered, worriedly.

"This examiner... something's not right, and this man too..." Sakura spoke gently to her team mates.

"Looks like we've got a lot of bloodthirsty ones in this test, this should be exciting." Anko stated happily.

"Before the test begins, you need to sign these." Anko stated, holding up a pile of forms. "There'll be killing in this exams and if you don't sign them, it'll be my fault."

"I'll explain the rules before there handed out, then check in at the booth behind me." Anko explained.

"Around this area there are 44 gates, there's a forest, river and a tower at the center. The area is ten kilometeres in size so you'll each start at a random gate."

"During this survival mission, you'll use your many weapons and jutsu to compete in an all out, no holds barred, scroll battle."

"Scroll?" Someone asked.

"Yes, these two, a heaven and earth scroll." Anko nodded, pulling out a white and navy scroll with kanji written on both of them.

"There are seventy-eight people here, meaning twenty six teams. Thirteen teams will get the heaven scroll, and thirteen will get the earth scroll. To pass this test, you'll have to make it to the tower with both scrolls."

The tension in the air began to rise as realization began to sink in.

'So half the teams will definitley fail...' Sakura thought darkly, a small smile began to tuck at her face until a full blown grin was in it's place.

"There's a time limit though... five days! You'll catch and eat you're food in the forest, just watch for the man eating beasts, poisonous insects and poisonous plants."

"Thirteen teams passing is not likely, as the days go on the time to rest gets shorter and the distance to the goal will get farther. And since there are so many enemies, you're unlikely to get much sleep."  
"So, you won't just die by losing your scroll... You'll die by the harshness of the course."

"Now I'll explain what will disqualify you... First, if you don't make it to the tower with both scrolls." Anko said, with a happy smile.

"Second, those who lose a team mate or have a team mate killed."

"Three, no quitting in the middle... You'll be in the forest for five days, win or lose."

"And finally, you must not open the scroll until you reach the tower."

"What happens if you do?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

"That's a surprise for anyone that does." Anko replied.

"A Chuunin will be asked to handle classified information, this is to test your trust worthyness. Fill in your forms and trade them for a scroll then go pick a gate."

"Oh, and a final word of advice..."

Everyone perked up at this, taking onboard any information that'll help.

"Don't die."

The game was on. 


	8. Second Exam And Preliminaries

Team seven had been running through the Forest of Death for three days now, after succeeding in getting their Earth scroll from a team from the hidden Rain village they had it taken off them from a snake like man.

The man had attacked them ruthlessly and bit Sasuke, making a mark appear on the dark haired boys neck.

* * *

_Flashback_

Sasuke and Ino stood frozen in fear, Naruto had been blown away by a wind attack ten minutes before and hadn't been seen since, he was presumed dead.

Sasuke faced the man in front of him, he was shaking in fear. Just as the man, known as Orochimaru, grinned evilly he threw kunai at the two Genin, intent on killing them.

But Sasuke was quicker, and in an instant he stabbed himself in the leg with a kunai, grabbed Ino and jumped for a tree branch.

The man merely grinned wider and was quick to follow suit. "Here, take our scrolls! Just leave us be!"

The man laughed like a maniac, but was soon to have his face turn to horror as a kunai exploded from his forehead.

Naruto was enveloped in a red cloak and glared monstrously at the back of the snake ninjas head. But any joy was soon wiped as the body of the man turned to mud.

"What are you doing, Sasuke?" Naruto stated in an emotionless voice, staring at where the man's body was.

"Y-You don't know how strong he was! He's not even dead yet, let's get out of here before he comes back!" Sasuke shouted, half enraged and half scared.

"Never, I'll never run and I'll never hide." Naruto stated, turning his crimson eyes towards Sasuke. "I'm not like you, coward."

"What?" Sasuke yelled, taken aback. Before any more conversation could continue, Orochimaru sneaked up behind Sasuke and bit him on the neck.

Sasuke hit the ground in shock and pain and went into a coma for a day and a half.

Naruto yelled in rage, his crimson eyes glowing even more and a tail sprouted out the back of his chakra cloak.

In the blink of an eye, Naruto vanished from sight and appeared moments later kicking Orochimaru in the skull. The man turned into mud again and before Naruto could track him, he too was bitten on the neck.

Thanks to the Kyuubi though, he didn't collapse. Instead he shook the shaking Ino, who was still in a trance from whatever Genjutsu Orochimaru had put on her, and had her help him carry Sasuke somewhere safe.

_Flashback End.  
_

* * *

Sasuke had awoken not long after, surrounded in a purple chakra whilst black markings covered his body. He had challenged Naruto to a fight, and had gotten the upper hand, until Naruto's body burst into chakra.

The colour was red-violet, and black markings covered half his body whilst his eyes changed into the usual crimson slit he got when using the Kyuubi's chakra.

Needless to say Sasuke lost, and was nearly killed if not for Hinata's timely appearance, after sharing their first kiss the chakra surrounding Naruto dissipated and he collapsed due to fatigue.

Both boys were now unconscious and were being looked after by Ino and Hinata, but it seemed team seven's troubles were never ending as the Sound Genin appeared, trying to kill off the two boys.

Hinata, Ino and with the help of a bushy eyed ninja known as Rock Lee – the Taijutsu specialist – they defeated and killed the sound trio.

Naruto and Sasuke awoke on the fourth day.

"Naruto! You're awake, thank goodness!" Hinata said excitedly, hugging the blond tight. He turned to her with no emotion on his face and kissed the girl unexpectedly.

Hinata was quite shocked, but she slowly closed her eyes and leaned into the kiss more and it soon got quite intense. Ino and Sasuke looked at each other but quickly looked away, blushing.

"Uh..." Sasuke murmured intelligently.

"L-Let's not talk, Sasuke-kun." Ino quickly said. Sasuke nodded and lifted himself up, once the loved up couple finished kissing, Sasuke apologised for attacking the blond.

"The next time we fight, you better not apologise after." Naruto merely stated, smiling gently at the dark haired boy.

Sasuke stared in bewilderment, but soon smiled back, nodding. Team seven and Hinata made their way to the tower to finally get this part of the test over with.

* * *

"Welcome, everyone." The Hokage said, smiling, as he viewed the final contestants. "I would like to congratulate those that are here for passing the second exam."

"Unfortunately, this isn't quite the end. Since there are too many of you, we're going to hold a preliminary round to weed out a few more of you for the final exam in a months time." The Hokage stated, all traces of a smile gone.

"There are five teams left, meaning fifteen Genin, If any of you wish to leave then now would be the right time to do so." After a few minutes, no one put their hands up.

"I admire your spirit, " Sandaime said with a smile, "Then let our electronic board pick the names of those that will fight."

A board was shown and began switching through the names of all the contestants there, before it finally stopped showing two names; Akimichi Choji versus Uchiha Sasuke.

"Both boys wait in the arena, the rest of you move to the watching area." Sandaime commanded, and everybody followed.

* * *

Fight one – Akimichi Choji versus Uchiha Sasuke.

Sasuke stood across from his opponent, they both bowed to each other and when they were told to do so, they began battle.

"Multi-size technique!" Choji yelled right off the bat, turning his body into a large, round ball. "Sorry Sasuke, I'm not holding back!"

"I wouldn't want it any other way." Sasuke replied, smirking. Sasuke set himself into a Taijutsu stance and waited for Choji to make his move.

"Spike Human Bullet Tank!" Choji yelled, he began to spin into a ball and used his kunai to turn the rolling ball into an even more ferocious weapon.

Choji began to charge towards Sasuke, making the boy do nothing but dodge.

After several minutes of this, Sasuke finally made his move when his Sharingan showed him how to defeat the bigger boys jutsu.

When Choji got closer to Sasuke, he quickly jumped into the air and made hand seals for his latest fire jutsu. "Fire style; Incinerator jutsu!" Sasuke yelled in his head, due to the mouthful of fire in his mouth.

When Choji had to stop himself to turn around, he had no choice but to take the unexpected attack head on. Unfortunately for the round boy, it cost him the match as he suffered too much fire damage that scorched his body.

"Uchiha Sasuke wins round one!" Sandaime called.

* * *

Fight two – Gaara versus Lee.

Gaara coldly stared at his leotard wearing opponent, he didn't look like much so expected an easy fight.

Boy was Gaara wrong.

Lee began the battle with high speed attacks which did nothing but hit Gaara's automatic sand defence, in which Gaara countered with trying to catch Lee in his desert hands but due to Lee's speed it was almost impossible.

Gaara soon grew frustrated with the game of cat and mouse and soon sent a cloud of sand to spread across the ceiling.

"Just die." Gaara told Lee coldly. "Sand Drizzle."

And soon small bullets of sand began to fall from the ceiling and make small crates in the ground where they landed.

Unfortunately for Lee, even his speed couldn't avoid the large area attack for long and he was pelted by the small sand bullets. With Lee stuck to the ground by the sand used in the technique, Gaara went on to use his signature move.

"Your blood will suffice the craving of mother... for now." Gaara blankly told Lee. "Sand Waterfall Funeral."

But Lee managed to break the sands hold on him before it could crush his body, unfortunately though the sands kept a tight hold of Lee's left arm and leg, crushing them instead.

Gaara wasn't satisfied though, and went on to finish the job he had started. Every Jonin in the arena grabbed Gaara, too fast for his sand to react to and forced him to release the grievously injured boy.

Gaara did so with much discontent.

Naruto grinned as he watched his fellow Jinchuriki leave the arena. Kyuubi had notified him of the demonic chakra that was infused into the sand, and letting him know the one tailed demon, Shukaku, lived inside the boy.

* * *

Fight Three – Kankuro versus Aburame Shino.

In this fight it was Shino to fight another of the sand siblings, this one being the puppet master Kankuro.

Shino had the upper hand with his chakra leeching bugs, but made a huge mistake when instead of Kankuro, the bugs had been sapping his puppet to which the bugs had no effect.

Kankuro had been wrapped in the bandages his puppet was supposed to reside in, and took Shino unexpectedly when he got too close to the real Kankuro.

Kankuro leaped from the bandages and knocked out Shino whilst he was unawares.

* * *

Fight Four Shikamaru versus Tenten,

For this round, Shikamaru was to fight Tenten.

Tenten began the fight by throwing hundreds of different weapons at the lazy ninja, who dodged them all by skill or luck, no one knew.

But just as Tenten lowered her guard, Shikamaru used his Multiple Shadow Imitation technique to lengthen his shadow so that it hit off the shadows of the weapons and spread it in every direction, making it impossible for Tenten to move or attack.

When the shadow finally got a hold of her, Shikamaru forced an imaginary kunai to his throat which Tenten copied with a real kunai in her hands and forced her to surrender.

* * *

Fight Five Hyuga Neji versus Temari.

Temari was out to fight Hyuga Neji. Temari used her fan to keep Neji from using his clans famous Taijutsu, Jyuken, by sending wind attacks.

The fight was over in minutes by Temari knocking Neji out cold.

* * *

Now I kind of got a bit lazy with doing the Forest of Death, but I've over written this part so many times that it bores me to tears now. I know what I want for future chapters, so I'm speeding things up a little to get there


	9. Life or Death

"What?" Hinata stared in shock, she was devastated to be made to fight the love of her life to gain entrance to the Chunin exam finale.

She took a look towards Naruto who was looking just as shocked as she was, she watched as Sasuke placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, making him look towards him.

Sasuke offered a condolence smile towards his blonde friend, he knew it couldn't be easy to fight against someone you cared about.

Kyuubi chuckled darkly, "Yes, Naruto... now is your chance! Kill that wench, show me you're dedicated to our cause."

'But... Hinata...' Naruto thought, his head in a mess. The last person he expected to fight was Hinata, she had become very close to him after all, close enough that he shared his first kiss with her in the Forest of Death.

"Naruto! You made a deal, that you would let someone close to your heart and then destroy them! Don't forget the darkness inside of you, don't forget what they've all done to you!" Kyuubi yelled, trying to gain sway over the blonde.

'But Hinata-chan... she wasn't like the rest of them, did I make a mistake in choosing her?' Naruto replied, speaking mostly to himself though. 'Kyuubi, is there some way, some how that I can find someone else?'

"No, the first person you've come to accept must be the person you kill. There's no other way for this to work." Kyuubi replied, earnestly. "This is the only chance I'm giving you, do it now... and Naruto?"

"What, Kyuubi?" Naruto asked coldly, not in the mood for the foxes games.

"Make it bloody." Kyuubi laughed slowly yet darkly as he receded into Naruto's mind to watch the carnage enfold, if Naruto even made it so.

"Naruto? Naruto!" Kakashi called the spaced out boy, Kakashi moved to put a hand on his young students shoulder but Naruto came too and slapped his hand away.

"I know, I'm going already." Naruto replied coldly as he jumped into the arena to wait for Hinata to come fight.

Hinata surprised the Genin and Jonin that watched her descend from the stairs, she was confident... almost arrogantly so. It was a complete turn around from the usual Hinata they seen.

"What's up with Hinata? I've never seen her like this before." Kiba commented to his sensei, she shook her head and shrugged.

"I believe Hinata and Naruto-san have a hidden relationship." Shino commented blankly, "I believe that Hinata is confident to fight Naruto due to a promise I overheard her whisper during training."

"Really? Hinata and Naruto? He finally caught on to her then, huh?" Kiba said with a grin, "What was this promise, Shino?"

"She promised to fight Naruto in the final rounds with everything she had, to prove to her father and Naruto that she wasn't a weak girl. I believe we're going to see a different side to Hinata in this fight." Shino told him, just as blank as before.

Meanwhile, in the arena...

"Naruto-kun, fight me with everything you've got... don't expect me to hold back on you either, because I won't be." Hinata told him with a cute smile.

Naruto looked at her coldly, his stomach twisting in nots as he did so. "Don't worry, I won't be holding back... maybe you should be praying that I do."

Hinata looked at her blonde boyfriend in complete confusion. "Naruto-kun? What's the matter?"

"..." Naruto simply turned his head to the Sandaime and nodded that he was ready to begin the fight when he was ready to call it.

"This is the final match of the day, the only contestant to not participate, Inuzuka Kiba, will be given a bye into the final rounds." Sandaime explained, "Now then, the final match... begin!"

Hinata activated her Byakugan and gotten into the famous Jyuken stance, she glared down at Naruto as he stood there lazily.

"I don't you not to hold back, come and fight me Naruto-kun!" Hinata yelled angrily. Naruto looked at her with a blank face but said and did nothing.

In fact, he was having a war with himself inside. Thanks to Hinata he had began to see the brighter side of life and that not everything had to be as dark as he pictured it.

But another part told him that she would betray him the first chance she got, it had happened before with others so why was she different?

The pain of thinking back on his past began to crush Naruto worse than the thought of hurting the one he loved and he began to crack.

Naruto's face twisted in rage as he looked at Hinata, he was surprised when he noticed her hand in his stomach. "You... you..." Naruto whispered with a hurt voice.

Hinata removed her hand and took a single step back, her face changed from confidence to fear at what she had done. "Naruto-kun... Naruto-kun, I'm so sorry!"

"You bitch!" Naruto yelled, swinging the back of his fist around to Hinata's face and sending her sprawling across the ground. "I knew it! I knew you would hurt me, just like the rest of them."

"No, Naruto-kun... it's just a match, please listen to me!" Hinata coughed, sitting up and trying to explain to the obviously insane boy, if the crazy look on his face had anything to do with it.

"No." Naruto stated simply, before vanishing in a black blue and picking Hinata up by her throat.

He threw her into the air and vanished in that black blur again, which the other Genin soon realized to be pure speed, and appeared above Hinata.  
With an overhead axe smash, he brought his conjoined hands down on Hinata's stomach, knocking the wind out of her and sending her to crash into the ground.

Hinata shakily got to her hands and knees and coughed out a few splatters of blood. She tried to get her bearing back, but Naruto was upon her before she could even blink.

He threw her towards a clone he had made seconds before on the opposite side of the room. The clone made five familiar, to his team, hand seals and threw his hands forwards calling the name of his technique.

"Fire style; Multi-Exploding Fireballs!" Naruto screamed, he threw a good few so that Hinata had no where to dodge.

His team mates were shocked beyond belief when not only did _one _fireball self combusted but so did _the rest of them._

It really showed how far Naruto had come using the technique Kyuubi had taught him. He could use it not only with his hands and mouth, but with his feet too. And even going so far as to make every fireball explode boosted this technique instantly from a simple C rank to an A rank.

"Wow, is this the same Naruto we've been fighting beside? Zabuza of the seven swordsmen was the only guy I've ever seen Naruto really go all out on like this, and he still lost." Ino commented, getting nods from both Kakashi and Sasuke.

"What? You guys fought a member of the seven swordsmen?" Might Gai's young duplicate student, Rock Lee, stated from nearby.

"That's right, Naruto and Kakashi-sensei both fought him... it was an unbelievable battle, but in the end even Naruto couldn't beat him." Sasuke stated.

"He ran me around all day after we got to Tazuna's house, you remember Sasuke? I should have given him D rank missions for life for that, troublesome bastard." Kakashi inserted, taking a phrase from Shikamaru's book, making his students chuckle.

Back to the fight...

Hinata had used a famous technique of her clan, the Heavenly Spin, to avoid the explosive blasts but was now out of breath, and had no way to hit the blonde haired boy now that he was on the offensive.

It was long before she braced herself for another beat down when Naruto vanished in a blur, she cracked one of her closed eyes open only to notice Naruto was nowhere in sight.

That was, until he called the name of his technique. "Wind style; Brutal Force technique."

Hinata had only a split second to reactivate her Byakugan and spot Naruto standing upside down on the roof whilst his wind attack came at her with full force, she dived out of the way but was unlucky enough to get attacked by Naruto's own made Taijutsu technique called 'Uzumaki Barrage'.

Again, Hinata crashed into the ground whilst Naruto landed lightly close by. He began making his way toward her heavy wheezing body as she looked at him with despair.

That was all he needed to see for him to make up his mind, if she would live or die. Naruto got closer and closer and soon he stood above Hinata's body.

"Good fight, Naruto-kun. I don't think I can carry on. When I'm out of the hospital, do you... want to go out sometime?" Hinata asked, any previous shyness she had around the boy was gone.

Naruto still looked blankly, tears began to sting his eyes as he realized that the choice he was about to make was the wrong one and that this new choice would bring sanctuary to his life.

"Why are you crying, Naruto-kun? You didn't hurt me that bad..." Hinata tried to lie, she was bloody, bruised and wheezing.

Naruto still said nothing as he looked at the beautiful face of his girlfriend. "Hinata..." Naruto whispered, getting on his knees.

"Could I make you the happiest girl in the world... by asking you to marry me? Would you be happy if you were my fiancée?" Naruto asked, his tears falling faster. The mood of the room wasn't as it should have been at a battle.

Hinata stared in shock, a red tinge now on her face. "Yes, yes Naruto-kun! I would be the happiest girl in the world if you were my fiancée!"

"Then, would you do me the honour?" He asked, not making eye contact with the beautiful girl.

"Yes, Naruto! I will!" Hinata rushed out, she was the happiest she had ever been and Naruto could see it in her eyes.

Naruto held his arms out in a hug, and Hinata slowly sat upright to return the hug. "I love you..." Naruto whispered, his tears cascading like a waterfall. "I really did love you..."

Hinata's face was held in pain as Naruto hugged her harder, before laying her body back on the ground. "You get some rest, Hinata... We'll meet soon." Naruto told her.

"At least at the end, I gave you the one thing you wanted most in life... the hope of being tied to my forever." Naruto whispered before he stood and walked away. "Even if it was just false hope..."

No one in the room spoke, no one wanted to be the one to break the silence... but alas, someone had to.

"Uzumaki Naruto, I declare you the winner of this match. Someone get Miss. Hyuga out of here, now!" Sandaime commanded with a serious face.

The medics placed Hinata's body on a stretcher, closing her eyes for the last time as they took her away. Naruto's tears had turned red with blood, the fox slit that made for his pupils would stay there forever as a reminder of the path he had chosen to walk.

The path of a demon...

Nine days later...

Naruto had been swaggering around the village for over a week now, ever since he took Hinata's life in the preliminaries.

He had no where to go and no one to talk to, and for the first time since he met his team he truly realized how alone he was.

His team weren't talking to him at this moment, Ino had slapped him for what he did to Hinata. He, in return, snapped her wrist and attempted to snap her neck but Sasuke got in the way and gave him a disgusted look.

Kakashi just stared at him with that annoying one eye in stern disappointment whilst taking his _team _somewhere to eat and grieve.

Hyuga Neji, the cousin to Hinata, had charged at him after the Sandaime was out of sight and swore on his pride as a Hyuga that he would kill Naruto for what he had done.

And if he had to make it worse, not only were Kurenai and her team out for his blood but also the entire Hyuga clan.

'My time in this village is slowly coming to a close...' Naruto thought to himself with a frown. His neck had been throbbing too, he had nearly succumbed to the curse seals mark in the exams when he began to use chakra but Kyuubi's chakra was more overwhelming than that of the curse mark and so it hadn't taken over him.

He had spent the previous day researching on this Orochimaru and found out quite a bit of information on the S rank missing ninja. He had been the Sandaime's student and one of the very few people in the ninja world to achieve a rank on par with a Kage.

He had been searching for some lab that Orochimaru had somewhere in the village, he was sure if he could find it then he could find some valuable insight into Kinjutsu he could use.

He was grudgingly grateful to Kyuubi too, over the past week he had kept to his word and taught Naruto some dangerous high class techniques that he doubted even the Hokage could pull off, but that was probably due to the age of the old man, after all he was no longer in his prime.

"I've no idea where that damn snakes old lab is!" Naruto growled with a sigh, "Maybe I should search him out? I bet he could teach me some cool techniques..."

Little did he know a silver haired boy with glasses overheard his little proclamation and with a smirk he made his way to his masters hide away...

Naruto woke up the next morning, as he sat up in his bed he sighed. Someone had been knocking on his door for five minutes now and wasn't taking the hint that he didn't want company.

As the person kept banging against his door, he yawned and put on his tight, black boxers before answering the door to Ino.

Ino stared at Naruto in annoyance when he finally opened the door, she had a light blush on her face when she saw what Naruto was wearing, but ignored it as she spoke.

"Finally!" She complained as Naruto opened the door with a glare, she soon barged past him and entered the house,

"Sure, walk into my house uninvited, why don't you." Naruto complained blandly. Ino took a seat at the kitchen table and waited for Naruto to close the door.

When Naruto walked closer to Ino he had an annoyed look on his face, "What do you want, Ino? I thought your team would be too busy training."

Ino's annoyed look softened as she took notice of Naruto's comment, "It's your team too, Naruto. And I'm here because I've not seen you since the preliminaries... Sasuke's gone off to train with Kakashi-sensei for the exams finale and left us behind."

"Like I care..." Naruto replied, going into his bedroom and putting his clothes on. When he exited his room five minutes later, he spotted Ino still sitting in his kitchen.

"Are you still here?" Naruto grunted, "Don't you have somewhere better to be? Somewhere that I'm not."

"Idiot," Ino replied back, "I've got no where to go, I'm still angry with you for what you said to me at the preliminaries by the way!"

"Whatever, I thought you'd care more about..." Naruto stopped what he was saying to begin frowning, he waved the comment off soon enough.

Ino stared at Naruto worriedly. "Do you want to... talk about?"

"No." Naruto replied instantly, and coldly. That was the last thing he wanted to do, it was still eating him alive. He never expected it to hurt him so much, but what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger he figured, and he was indeed stronger.

"Why?" Ino asked him after a few moments of silence. Naruto turned his head to look at her with one eye in a questioning manor.

"Why did you... kill her? I thought you loved her..." Ino asked quietly, not making Naruto's gaze. Naruto stayed quiet for a few moments.

"Because I had to, to get stronger... I needed to kill my heart. She became my heart and so I destroyed her." Naruto replied, honestly confused as to why he was telling her such a personal thing.

"That's it? You took the life of one of our friends because you wanted to get stronger?..." Ino replied, anger starting to rise in her voice.

She then had an idea pop into her head, "Naruto... Did the Kyuubi tell you to do this? Did he offer to make you stronger if you killed her?"

"What's it to you?" Naruto replied darkly.

Ino stared at him in horror. "Naruto, you should have known the fox was tricking you! It just wants to control you, and you're letting it!"

"Shut up..." Naruto growled.

"No! You idiot! Are you trying to turn into a monster?" She physically yelled, getting to her feet.

Ino soon found herself pinned to the wall with her feet hanging off of the ground. Naruto's fox slit eyes penetrated Ino's own and she finally noticed them for the first time.

"Your eyes!" She gasped.

"Yeah, I gave Hinata the happiest moment of her life before her death and in return she helped me gain these eyes..." Naruto told her, all sorts of crazy had taken over his expression.

"Let me give you a taste of but a fraction of their power." Naruto stated, his face turning dark with an open mouthed grin. "Mind Body Disturbance technique."

Ino's eyes widened in shock at Naruto using her a technique unique only to her clan, before her eyes closed and she remembered no more.

* * *

Ino came to her senses several hours later, lying on the floor in the middle of Konoha forest with her body covered in blood.

She looked up to find a thick blood trail leading into some bushes, Ino followed it warily to find the bodies of several dead Genin.

She collapsed to the floor, her eyes stinging with tears, in shock as she realized what Naruto had made her do.

She never noticed the glaring lavender eyes of Kega Mitsukai staring at her as the failed Genin began to blend into the shadows. "I've finally found you... the one who killed my parents..." Were her only words, as she vanished from sight.

* * *

I'm ashamed of the last chapter... it shouldn't even be called a chapter, I'll make a point in the next day or so to retype it and make it much, much longer. Until then though, how is this current chapter? Next time it's a time skip, Naruto met Jiraiya during his one month training period and has been trained a little for the exam finale, the matches have yet to be revealed but are just about to start, let the finale begin !


End file.
